2009 season:
Vince established himself as one of the elite midfielders of the competition in 2009 with a standout year. He won his first Club Champion award finishing two votes ahead of Jason Porplyzia in one of the tightest vote counts in memory. Vince finished the year ranked first at the club in disposals (597), kicks (336) and marks (142). He was included in the initial 40-man All-Australian squad and also polled a career-best 13 Brownlow Medal votes, the most of any Adelaide player this season. He had a number of standout games including 34 disposals and three goals against Carlton in round 22. On club champion night Vince paid tribute to mentor Simon Goodwin. "Simon's been a great influence on my career,” Vince said. “I was just cruising through the system a little bit in my first couple of years and I put almost everything I've achieved over the past couple of years down to what Simon Goodwin has done for me. "It's a great honour to be up there with some of the great players of the competition, let alone the club. I'm really proud to have won it," he said. "I had what was my best year in 2008 and followed it up with an even better 2009.”

David Noble’s 2009 review:
“You could call it a breakout year for Bernie. His attention to detail was a credit to him. He’s done a lot of work with Goody in terms of what it takes to become an elite AFL footballer and how you have to train and prepare and there’s still a bit more there for Bernie. He’ll need to keep pushing himself to get there because come next year he’s going to get the No. 1 tagger every week. His capacity to perform under that expectation and tagging heat is what’s going to take him to the next level.”

Career:
Vince was drafted by Adelaide with the 32nd pick at the 2005 national draft. He was playing A grade cricket for Woodville on the day of the draft but the former South Australian country batsman had to give the game away to concentrate on his first AFL pre-season. Vince played four AFL games in 2006 and six in 2007 but again was at risk of missing out on exploiting his footballing talents. Captain Simon Goodwin took Vince aside before the 2008 pre-season and told him to make the most of the opportunity he had on Adelaide’s list. A breakthrough year in 2008 saw Vince feature in two best on ground performances, the standout a two goal, 24 possession game in round three against Port Adelaide. He had 376 possessions in 2008 and 75 tackles and kicked 15 goals.