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 Hawthorn 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 Geelong 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 Western Bulldogs in Round 7, an 11-point loss to Fremantle at Subiaco in Round 16, a 1-point loss & a draw to the eventual premiers that year Collingwood in Rounds 2 & 12 respectively and a 73-point win to Sydney 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]
After a disastrous pre-season with no wins, Dean Bailey's role as senior-coach was put immediately under scrutiny when Melbourne were unable to stop the hard tackling midfield offence from Hawthorn (whom were missing several key players). They managed to score only one goal in the first half to Hawthorn's ten.
Late in the third quarter when Hawthorn had a 78-point lead (102–24), they relaxed and allowed Melbourne to move the ball more freely. Eventually Melbourne earned some respectability back on the score board by kicking the last 5 out of 7 goals for the match.
After a week of scrutiny for their round 1 performance, Melbourne stunned premiership-contenders Collingwood with rapid ball movement down the corridor and frequent tackling to head into quarter time 2 goals ahead.
Collingwood wrestled their way back into the game and eventually the lead. However Aaron Davey's movement through the midfield; Jack Grimes' hardness in the back-line; Ricky Petterd's present-ability in the forward line and Mark Jamar's domination in the ruck prevented Collingwood from running away with the match.
After many lead changes throughout the game and with Collingwood in front by a point in the dying seconds of the game, Rohan Bail would gather uncontested possession of the ball on Melbourne's attacking 50. He would kick the ball to the goal-square where Ricky Petterd was present to mark the ball and kick after the siren. However a desperate rush from Steele Sidebottom prevented Petterd from marking the ball with safe hands as the ball spilled to the ground on the siren.
In unusually cold April weather, an under-performing and winless Adelaide attempted to gain their first victory for the season against a much improved Melbourne side from the week before.
Melbourne appeared to have fallen back to their hapless style of play from Round 1 as Adelaide restricted them to a single first half goal and opened up a 25 point lead early in the third quarter. However Melbourne eventually re-found their spark they showed against Collingwood and conceded only 2 more behinds for the entire game.
Melbourne would pile on the final 6 goals of the game in a scrappy affair causing a 38 point turnaround and their first victory for the season.
Melbourne headed into a game for the first time as clear favorites since Round 20, 2006.
In a high scoring first quarter, Richmond kicked the first 2 majors of the game before Melbourne retaliated with the next 8 out of 11.
By the turn of the second quarter, the game's tempo had slowed dramatically. Melbourne were held goal less and Richmond cut the deficit back to a single goal at half time.
Midfield veterans Colin Sylvia, Brent Moloney and James McDonald broke the game clear against the 2 young sides in the third quarter. They allowed Melbourne to pile on 7 unanswered goals and give them a 50 point lead at three quarter time.
By the final quarter, Richmond managed to break the strangle hold Melbourne applied to them in the third quarter. However the damage was already done by Melbourne's senior players as they ran out 56 point winners.
Melbourne entered the game as underdogs against an undefeated Brisbane Lions side.
Melbourne immediately got Brisbane on the back-foot with their signature brand of fast-transitioning football through the corridor they had played in the previous 3 weeks. Throughout the first half, Melbourne were too fast for Brisbane and hence they gained a 36 point lead heading into half time.
Brisbane restored some credibility for their previous week's performances by winning the third quarter. However Melbourne's combination of agility around contests, hard running, hard tackling and rapid ball movement held Brisbane scoreless in the final quarter and Melbourne 50 point winners.
Melbourne won their third consecutive match for the first time since Round 12, 2006 and their first 50+ point win against Brisbane since Round 10, 2000.
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]
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