UNDAUNTED DEES KEEN ON CAT CLASH
FORMER Melbourne captain Jack Viney says his team is “desperate to play footy“against Geelong this weekend.
But he does not believe the Demons have been disadvantaged by the postponement of last week’s clash with Essendon.
Melbourne is due to face the Cats on Sunday – 15 days after it held out a fast-finishing Carlton side at Marvel Stadium and it has only had an intraclub hit-out in between games.
Viney said the Demons were hungry to take on Geelong, believing his side would be fresh after its mini-break.
“We’re pretty desperate to play footy at the moment,” Viney said.
“We’ve been locked away for a fair while now and we’re just getting back into the swing of things, so I would have loved to played some footy. But we had a big hitout, an intraclub on Sunday, so that will have to do and I’ll look forward to playing Geelong this weekend.
“I think everyone’s pretty flexible and adaptable this year. We’ve been cooped up for a while now and any opportunity to play some football, I know the guys would jump at it, so it is what it is and it is pretty unpredictable times at the minute.
“We are looking forward to getting out there on Sunday. I don’t necessarily feel disadvantaged. I think there are positives and negatives to the situation we were faced with, but I think you could say we will be pretty fresh coming into (this Sunday).
“But I think the Cats are an extremely strong side. Every time we have come up to play them they have played very strongly.”
Despite suggestions from some commentators that the Demons-Bombers game should have gone ahead midweek, and their respective matches against Geelong and Carlton pushed back, the clash will now be played later in the season.
Viney said he was confident AFL players were capable of backing up on short turnarounds if four- or fiveday breaks become a feature of the 2020 season.
“I love playing footy, so I’d happily try and back it up every three or four days, but it also depends on the game you played beforehand, because it’s a physical sport and we run multiple kilometres a game,” he said.
“You can pull up pretty sore, and to back up your performance game to game you do need some time to recover. So as much as I’d love to play every day, I probably wouldn’t be playing my best football. So (with) four or five days to recover, I think you’d be pulling up well.”