Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Melbourne premiership midfielder Jack Viney is now more likely to land at the West Coast Eagles after Essendon withdrew its interest.
Demons coach Steven King encouraged Viney to explore his options, prompting interest from the Eagles and Bombers.
The on-baller toured and underwent medicals at both facilities, but the Bombers dropped their pursuit on the first morning of the trade period.
“We’ve had some good discussions with Jack, we won’t pursue that one at this stage,” Essendon list and recruitment manager Matt Rosa said.
“It’s obviously a hard call given how good of a human he is, but we’ve decided to prioritise our young mids and the mids on our list.
“We really rate this year’s draft as well. We’re excited by that, getting some more talent in.
“It’s a tough one because he is such an incredible person and leader, we’ll push forward with other things at this stage.”
Viney, 32, played just one game in 2026 after sustaining serious achilles and back injuries.
West Coast Eagles list manager Matt Clarke spoke ahead of Rosa, either playing a straight bat or unaware the Dons were no longer a challenger.
“We think we’ve presented a strong case for Jack as to why he would be a great fit for our footy club from a playing point of view, as a leader and as a culture shaper,” he said.
“Maybe in the next few days we’ll find out a bit more on that, but you’ll need to go through the management group on that.
“We think it’s a strong pitch. We understand it’s a really big decision for him with a young family to move from Melbourne to Perth.
“(Our pitch) was a little bit around how he would fit in culturally over there with our guys, where his family would fit too.
“We think he could add a lot to our footy club in that space, (but deciding) to move a family as young as they are across the other side of the country is a big one.”
