2017 Melbourne Football Club season

Senior personnel

Simon Goodwin will enter his first season as senior coach after taking over from departed coach, Paul Roos, as part of the succession plan. A restructure in the player development area saw the head of development, Brett Allison leave the club with the club electing not to renew his contract; former Geelong player and Essendon assistant coach, Matthew Egan was hired in September 2016 as the replacement for Allison. Former Port Adelaide and Richmond player, Troy Chaplin joined the club in a newly created role, the offensive coordinator, in his first year as an assistant coach after he retired during the 2016 season. The club secured two-time Geelong premiership player and former Geelong and Gold Coast development coach, Max Rooke as a development coach in November 2016. Glen Bartlett will continue in his role as club president, a role he has held since August 2013. Chief Executive Officer, Peter Jackson, will continue with the club after signing a contract extension to the end of the 2018 season.

Fixture summary

After having a home game at Etihad Stadium every season since 2011, the club won't have to play a home match at Etihad in 2017, which drew pleasure from both the club and fans alike. The team will play its first seven matches in Victoria and then travel to Adelaide to play Adelaide at Adelaide Oval in round eight; the final three matches of the season will be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground against non-finalists in 2016. The club will again host Collingwood in the annual Queen's Birthday clash in round twelve and play Richmond in the Anzac Day eve match in round five; due to an ongoing sponsorship with Tourism NT, the club will host two matches in the Northern Territory, the first against Gold Coast at TIO Traeger Park in round ten and the second at TIO Stadium against Adelaide in round seventeen. The club will play its first Friday night match since the 2015 season and the second in total since the 2012 season, when they host Sydney at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in round fifteen. The club will have the equal-most six day breaks with eight in total, including two back-to-back from rounds thirteen to fifteen.

In addition to the Friday night match, the club will play ten Saturday matches (four afternoons, three twilights, and three nights), eight Sunday matches (all afternoon matches) and two Monday matches (one afternoon and one night), with the round twenty-three match time and date to be decided in August. Nine matches will be broadcast on free-to-air on the Seven Network and twelve will be broadcast on pay TV on Fox Footy, with the round twenty-three match broadcast also yet to be decided. The teams the club will play twice are Adelaide, Carlton, Collingwood, North Melbourne and St Kilda, with Adelaide and North Melbourne the only teams finishing in top eight in 2016. With the off-season recruitment of Hawthorn player, Jordan Lewis, both AFL Media and the Herald Sun noted the round seven match against Hawthorn as the "match to watch" for Melbourne's season. Analysis by Champion Data ranked the fixture difficulty as the eighth hardest out of the eighteen teams.

JLT Community Series

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3