President Jim Stynes Captain(s) James McDonald Pre-season First round | Coach Dean Bailey Home ground MCG AFL season 12th | |
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The 2010 Melbourne Football Club season was the club's 111th year in the VFL/AFL since it began in 1897.
Contents
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. 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. The same night Melbourne also unveiled its new logo.
NAB Cup
Week 1
NAB Challenge
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
China Tour
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.
Awards
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.
Best and Fairest Top Ten
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)