{"id":74462,"date":"2026-08-18T05:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T05:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/74462\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T05:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T05:03:15","slug":"afl-2026-melbourne-will-way-up-parachuting-jack-viney-in-for-western-bulldogs-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/74462\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2026: Melbourne will way up parachuting Jack Viney in for Western Bulldogs clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Melbourne coach Steven King is weighing the balance between winning chemistry and the value of Jack Viney after the vice-captain returned through the VFL unscathed.<\/p>\n<p>Viney played his first match of the season last weekend, recording 20 disposals, 10 clearances, seven clearances and a goal for Casey Demons. <\/p>\n<p>The hard-nosed midfielder had previously endured a wretched run of Achilles and back injuries.<\/p>\n<p>King admits there\u2019s an urge to rush Viney back in to face Western Bulldogs this Saturday, but says the Demons must make sure he\u2019s \u201creally ready\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean it\u2019s his first game of the year, so first and foremost it\u2019s great to see him out there,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen we have to weigh up how he pulled up, there\u2019s a lot of factors to go into it, obviously team balance \u2013 we\u2019ve won six of our last seven.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut, I mean, when you get Jack Viney available it\u2019s only a good thing so I want to make sure I do the right thing by the team, the club but more so Jack as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to make sure when he comes in, he\u2019s really ready, is that this week? We will wait and see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Melbourne could finish as high as the top four or as low as the wildcard round depending on the outcome of this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>The Demons will have the ascendancy in the ruck with Max Gawn going up against a Bulldogs brigade without Tim English.<\/p>\n<p>King says Melbourne is challenging for the flag off the back of Gawn\u2019s season and is calling for the star ruckman to be named as captain in a record ninth All Australian team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s amazing what he\u2019s done for our club (and) his standing in the game,\u201d King said of Gawn.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf he got that nod to be nine-time, I think it\u2019s incredibly, really. To be captain of our club for a long time now, he\u2019s broken the wins record as captain of our club.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would be a nice thing for him to get that nod, for me, I\u2019m biased but I think he\u2019s worthy of an All Australian captaincy, to be honest, with what he\u2019s done and how he\u2019s carried this team this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be sitting where we are is off the back of his work which is extraordinary for a 34-year-old to be doing what he\u2019s doing \u2013 it\u2019s a privilege to coach him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read related topics:<a class=\"topic_tag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news.com.au\/topics\/melbourne\" data-tgev-container=\"story-topic-links\" data-tgev-label=\"Melbourne\" data-tgev-order=\"1\" data-tgev-metric=\"npv\" data-tgev=\"event10\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Melbourne<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne coach Steven King is weighing the balance between winning chemistry and the value of Jack Viney after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[54778,53980,108088,108090,108097,108093,43176,44372,40993,38151,108107,108084,88244,44623,108079,108106,53959,108105,108096,108101,108089,22751,6156,79952,88132,5064,49866,108108,108087,108104,108103,49071,80725,36167,34736,85701,2085,260,53958,1080,61195,108086,108109,16821,108083,14400,108094,108110,42022,64451,39770,53970,53458,40472,108082,37925,47447,108100,43078,108092,38140,39940,69922,108102,108098,108080,108091,38650,45373,65766,38964,108081,39096,108085,93319,53956,108099,3048,108095],"class_list":["post-74462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-s-clash","tag-s-season","tag-10-clearances","tag-20-disposals","tag-a-34-year-old","tag-a-bulldogs-brigade","tag-a-goal","tag-a-good-thing","tag-a-long-time","tag-a-lot","tag-a-major-selection-call","tag-a-nice-thing","tag-a-privilege","tag-a-record","tag-a-wretched-run","tag-achilles-and-back-injuries-king","tag-afl-2026","tag-all-australian-team","tag-an-all-australian-captaincy","tag-an-immediate-senior-recall","tag-an-urge","tag-captain","tag-casey-demons","tag-chemistry","tag-dees","tag-demons","tag-factors","tag-gawn","tag-his-first-game","tag-his-first-match","tag-his-standing","tag-his-work","tag-jack","tag-jack-viney","tag-king","tag-last-weekend","tag-max-gawn","tag-melbourne","tag-melbourne-coach-steven-king","tag-newswire-sport","tag-our-club","tag-our-last-seven","tag-rush-or-rest","tag-saturday","tag-seven-clearances","tag-team-balance","tag-that-nod","tag-the-ascendancy","tag-the-back","tag-the-balance","tag-the-club","tag-the-demons","tag-the-flag","tag-the-game","tag-the-hard-nosed-midfielder","tag-the-outcome","tag-the-right-thing","tag-the-ruck","tag-the-season","tag-the-star-ruckman","tag-the-team","tag-the-top-four","tag-the-value","tag-the-vfl-unscathed","tag-the-vice-captain","tag-the-wildcard-round","tag-the-wins-record","tag-the-year","tag-this-saturday","tag-this-team","tag-this-week","tag-this-weekend-the","tag-this-year","tag-tim-english-king","tag-vice-captain-jack-viney","tag-viney","tag-viney-call","tag-western-bulldogs","tag-western-bulldogs-clash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}