| Club: | Melbourne Football Club |
| Season: | 2010 |
| President: | Jim Stynes (3rd season) |
| Coach: | Dean Bailey (3rd season) |
| Captain: | James McDonald (3rd season) |
| Home Ground: | MCG (100,018 capacity) |
| Preseason Comp: | Pre-season |
| Preseason Result: | First round |
| Regularseason Comp: | AFL season |
| Regularseason Result: | 12th |
| Finals Series: | Finals series |
| Finals Result: | DNQ |
| Club B&Amp;F: | Best and fairest |
| Best And Fairest: | Brad Green |
| Leading Goalscorer: | Brad Green (55 goals) |
| Highest Attendance: | 67,454 (round 12 vs.) |
| Lowest Attendance: | 8,848 (round 9 vs.) |
| Average Attendance: | 37,739 |
| Club Membership: | 33,358 (1,852 / 5.88%) |
| Prevseason: | 2009 |
| Nextseason: | 2011 |
The 2010 Melbourne Football Club season was the club's 111th year in the VFL/AFL since it began in 1897.
Melbourne played 14 games at the MCG, 10 of which were home games. They also played a home match at TIO Stadium in Darwin against Port Adelaide in Round 9.[1] It was Dean Bailey's third year as senior coach. James McDonald continued as the club's captain until retiring at the end of the year.
After a terrible start to the season getting thrashed to by 56 points, Melbourne began to lift their work-rate in games and indicate that they were beginning to successfully maneuver Dean Bailey's coaching-style. They began to play a fast and exciting brand of football with heavy use of the corridor and playing-on in subsequent weeks. Furthermore, unlike the 3 previous seasons, Melbourne began to cut heavy defects back to smaller deficits by preventing their opponents from scoring. This was due to Melbourne constantly gained running momentum when moving the ball outside of their defensive 50.
Melbourne's season was headlined by being constantly competitive on a weekly basis only losing one more time for the season by over 50 points to in Round 10. Melbourne was shown strong signs of competitiveness against the sides that eventually finished in the top 8 that year. This included a 4-point loss to the in Round 7, an 11-point loss to at Subiaco in Round 16, a 1-point loss & a draw to the eventual premiers that year in Rounds 2 & 12 respectively and a 73-point win to in Round 17.
In addition to Melbourne's promising season allowing them to achieve 8 wins and a draw with a percentage of 94.52%, it also allowed James Frawley and Mark Jamar to earn position in the 2010 All-Australian team in the back line and the interchange bench respectively.
In August, Melbourne announced it was officially debt free.[2] The same night Melbourne also unveiled its new logo.[3]
| Player | New club | League | Reason | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MPNFL | Retired | ||||
| Retired | |||||
| Retired | |||||
| Delisted | [5] | ||||
| Delisted | |||||
| Trent Zomer | Unknown | Unknown | Delisted |
| Round | Overall pick | Player | State | Position | Team from | League from | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Midfield | |||||
| 1 | 2 | Midfield | |||||
| 1 | 11 | Midfield | |||||
| 2 | 18 | Forward/Midfield | |||||
| 3 | 34 | Ruck | |||||
| 4 | 50 | Key Position |
| Round | Overall pick | Player | State | Position | Team from | League from | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Forward | AFL | ||||
| 2 | 22 | Ruck | AFL |
| Opponent | Played | Won | Lost | Drew | Premiership points | Points for | Points against | Percentage (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 142 | 69 | 205.80 | |
| 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 242 | 158 | 153.16 | |
| 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 177 | 117 | 151.28 | |
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 122 | 103 | 118.45 | |
| 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 161 | 162 | 99.38 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 66 | 70 | 94.29 | |
| 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 194 | 222 | 87.39 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 71 | 82 | 86.59 | |
| 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 181 | 217 | 83.41 | |
| 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 130 | 158 | 82.28 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 65 | 100 | 65.00 | |
| 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 139 | 216 | 64.35 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 46 | 75 | 61.33 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 58 | 166 | 59.41 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 67 | 121 | 55.37 | |
| Total | 22 | 8 | 13 | 1 | 34 | 1863 | 1971 | 94.52 |
| Home & Away Season | |||||||||
| Player | Milestone | Reached | |||||||
| AFL Debut | 27 March 2010 | ||||||||
| AFL Debut | 27 March 2010 | ||||||||
| AFL Debut | 27 March 2010 | ||||||||
| 200th AFL Game | 3 April 2010 | ||||||||
| AFL Debut | 7 May 2010 | ||||||||
| AFL Debut | 29 May 2010 | ||||||||
| 100th AFL Game | 29 May 2010 | ||||||||
| 50th AFL Game | 29 May 2010 | ||||||||
| 50th AFL Game | 27 June 2010 | ||||||||
| 100th AFL Game | 4 July 2010 | ||||||||
| 100th AFL Game | 8 August 2010 | ||||||||
| 250th AFL Game | 22 August 2010 | ||||||||
| 50th AFL Game | 29 August 2010 | ||||||||
Melbourne competed in the Kaspersky Cup Exhibition Match against the Brisbane Lions on 17 October in Shanghai, China winning by 5 points. Liam Jurrah kicked 5 goals in front of an estimated 5,000 crowd.[6]
Melbourne's annual Best and Fairest night was held on 2 September, at Crown Casino. Brad Green capped off an excellent year, winning his first Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Trophy, finishing 18 votes ahead of defender James Frawley, and also winning the Ron Barassi Leadership Award and the Leading Goalkicker Award.[7]
Best and Fairest Top Ten
| Position | Player | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Brad Green | (295) | |
| 2nd | James Frawley | (277) | |
| 3rd | Mark Jamar | (231) | |
| 4th | Aaron Davey | (194) | |
| 5th | Colin Sylvia | (170) | |
| 6th | Cameron Bruce | (168) | |
| 7th | Brent Moloney | (166) | |
| 8th | Tom Scully | (154) | |
| 9th | Colin Garland | (149) | |
| 10th | James McDonald | (149) |
Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Trophy – Brad Green
Sid Anderson Memorial Trophy (Second in the Best and Fairest) – James Frawley
Ron Barassi Snr Memorial Trophy (Third in the Best and Fairest) – Mark Jamar
Ivor Warne-Smith Memorial Trophy (Fourth in the Best and Fairest) – Aaron Davey
Dick Taylor Memorial Trophy (Fifth in the Best and Fairest) – Colin Sylvia
Harold Ball Memorial Trophy (Best First Year Player) – Tom Scully
Troy Broadbridge Trophy (highest polling MFC player in the Casey Best and Fairest) – Brad Miller
Ron Barassi Leadership Award – Brad Green
Ian Ridley Club Ambassador Award – Colin Sylvia
Norm Smith Memorial Trophy (Coach's Award) – Jordie McKenzie
Leading Goalkicker Award – Brad Green (55)
| Player | 1 vote games | 2 vote games | 3 vote games | Total votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | 2 | (10) | ||
| 0 | 2 | 2 | (10) | ||
| 1 | 0 | 2 | (7) | ||
| 0 | 0 | 2 | (6) | ||
| 1 | 2 | 0 | (5) | ||
| 1 | 2 | 0 | (5) | ||
| 0 | 2 | 0 | (4) | ||
| 0 | 0 | 1 | (3) | ||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | (3) | ||
| 0 | 0 | 1 | (3) | ||
| 0 | 0 | 1 | (3) | ||
| 0 | 1 | 0 | (2) | ||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | (1) | ||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | (1) | ||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | (1) | ||
| Total | 9 | 11 | 11 | (64) |