5 hours ago, Wrecker46 said:

Oliver and Petracca contributed to Viney's rise and became better players themselves because of it.

They no longer all go for the same ball. See ball get ball was damaging for us when we had too many doing it.

Since Yze came we seem to operate much more methodically.

Yep. The phrase "bees to a honeypot" came up a lot, for good reason. It was infuriating. But look at us now 

6 hours ago, Wrecker46 said:

Oliver and Petracca contributed to Viney's rise and became better players themselves because of it.

They no longer all go for the same ball. See ball get ball was damaging for us when we had too many doing it.

Since Yze came we seem to operate much more methodically.

Very true.  And although it’s good that some posters who previously were scathing on Viney now see his value, he was a scapegoat for a lot of posters and some even relatively recent comments were ridiculous.

Viney has always given the ball off to others in a better position, but often because of our structures there wasn’t anyone on the outside. He has always had a different approach in the contest to say a younger Oliver who was handball happy.  Viney never handballed to no-one so got caught HTB more while the old Oliver often handballed to no one and turned it over.  Viney’s approach was always better, and Oliver has adopted it, as defending against holding the ball is a lot easier than defending a handball turnover to an opposition player on the outside. Oliver now bursts out of stoppages and stands up in tackles as well, and occasionally gets caught HTB but who cares.

As a team, our stoppages were probably the best by any team ever in the finals, as we sorted the structures and it all clicked. But Viney didn’t change his approach, it’s just the team improved and he had support on the outside to give it off to. Full credit to Yze.

So give Viney credit for his unbelievable final series, but posters shouldn’t try and justify their previously ridiculous comments by arguing Viney changed his approach.

 

 

We now have a midfield that easily rivals the most recent unstoppable midfield of Cox/Judd/Kerr/Cousins....but we will go deeper with Gawn/Viney/Oliver/Petracca/Sparrow/Jordan......and you can throw in Brayshaw/Langdon for good measure!

These guys have the chance to be remembered by the AFL community for a long time as being one of the best engine rooms ever!

I hope they achieve it!

9 hours ago, Go Dees!! said:

We now have a midfield that easily rivals the most recent unstoppable midfield of Cox/Judd/Kerr/Cousins....but we will go deeper with Gawn/Viney/Oliver/Petracca/Sparrow/Jordan......and you can throw in Brayshaw/Langdon for good measure!

These guys have the chance to be remembered by the AFL community for a long time as being one of the best engine rooms ever!

I hope they achieve it!

Dunstan  and Pickett also. 

I love the way that he gave it to Duckwood in Q3 of the Preliminary Final. 

Fantastic that Viney is finally getting respect and recognition. 

I don’t think we would a have a flag without him - taking into account his on field performances but also his impact on the group over the past 7 years on and off the field

he will go down as a Demon legend. Watch him dominate the next 4 years

He used to drive me crazy when he grabbed the ball, took on the tackler* and got caught. He took that out of his repertoire in 2021 and, as they say in the classics, the rest is history !! 

 

*invariably to get on his left side

 

On 1/25/2022 at 6:17 PM, Macca said:

Born to play finals is Viney

#BeastMode

Came into form at just the right time.

He has shown by rejecting the Geelong overtures that he has red and ble flowing in his veins and decided to achieve the success at the MFC.

He has been rewarded for his loyalty, his early years at the club were like walking over broken bottles in bare feet, and with any luck with injury he might play in multiple premierships like players Ron Barassi, Bluey Adams and Brian Dixon who all played in the golden era of the MFC enjoying 6 premierships.

There were many others who played in multiple premiership but the 3 I have mentioned lasted the longest.

The only reason players in the 1950's and 1960's left the club early to coach or earn good money playing the game they loved.

On 1/26/2022 at 10:26 AM, FlashInThePan said:

Yeah, I feel like I have to post on this thread. I have been guilty in the past of thinking of JV as to one dimensional and of driving some of the behaviours that I thought were holding us back. Ball hunting, trying to take everyone on with brute strength rather than look for a block to get someone clear.

 This final series was a different Viney, he played a much more complete role, breaking the oppositions stoppage structures and either freeing trac or clarrie for the extraction or doing it himself.

I’ve never posted in criticism of him, that’s not really my style but I apologise for some of the things that I was thinking. Thank God I’m not in charge of list management!

I did post and i was critical, but i have learnt my lesson. As is being said, it was almost as if he was a GF player waiting to happen and he did.. What a great thing for his family as well.

1 hour ago, leave it to deever said:

Came into form at just the right time.

Yes, patience, grasshopper!

(Although, I don't believe he was ever that out of form anyway)

Jack missed 10 games through injury in 2021, but working on pro-rata and his average amount of votes in the B&F,  he'd have finished around about top 5 if he'd played every game

And in a premiership year where he's up against Gawn,  Petracca,  Oliver,  Salem,  May,  Lever & Langdon etc, that's a fine result

 

Edited January 27, 20223 yr by Macca

Football enforcers are largely extinct these days and in many ways that's a good thing. Cheap shotting, deliberately causing injuries and generally being a [censored] of a human being doesn't belong in the game.

That said, teams benefit when they have a bloke who looks out for their teammates under the packs, and it helps to have a bloke to stick it up the opposition when things are going the team's way.

My favorite memory of beating the Cats in the prelim last year wasn't even a moment where Jack had the pill but he was definitely involved.

It was when Maxy took a pack mark for his 4th (or 5th?) goal and proceeded to dob it. As soon as it was paid, Jack, most likely remembering the likes of the physical and verbal stick he copped from the likes ofMackie, Duckwood, Stevie J and most notoriously, Wojcinski, early in his career, proceeded to turn around and give it to both Selwood and Myers on both barrels.

The Cats were demoralized by that point and their protests against his sledging were tepid at best. Yet, he made sure to let them know all about it. No way they were going to get within 4 goals after that.

Edited January 27, 20223 yr by Colin B. Flaubert