President - Frank Grey Smith
Vice Presidents - Henry Harrison, Charles Forrester, Jas Byrne, George Aitken
Treasurer - Arthur Hunt
Secretary - J. Macdonald
Assistant Secretary - A. Smith
Captain - Howard Morrison
Vice-Captain - A. Edwards
Committee - Above plus G. Murdoch, J. Morris, H. Morrison J. Farquhar and F. Willis.
Second 20 Secretary - W. Lynar

The VFA further expanded - adding Footscray, Port Melbourne, Prahran, St Kilda and South Williamstown to the ranks of senior clubs. They also brought in measures to stamp out professionalism in the game, a move welcomed by the Melbourne club which had always played as amateurs.

For the first time games were played in 30 minute quarters rather hour long halves as a result of a vote at the Inter-Colonial Football Conference held in Melbourne the previous November. The rules were also altered to make 'little marks' have to travel two yards before counting and permitted the use of boundary umpires if the two sides agreed. Timekeepers, one from each club, were introduced.

After a number of seasons of disappointing play, Melbourne finally gave their fans something to look forward to - going on a seven game winning streak towards the end of the year before reverting to type and losing their last two matches.

During the year the Reds toured Tasmania, leaving on 7 July. The touring part was Bailey, Baird, Buscombe, Brayshay, Burns, Coulson, Dodds, Edwards, T. Elliott, Franks, Griffith, Garton, Hobbs, Johnson, Lynar, Murphy, Morgan, Morrison, Nuttall, O'Bern, Plant, Robinson and Strachan.

James Kelly (back), Ed Griffith, Harry O'Bern and Tuckfield (forward) were named in The Australasian newspaper's team of the year.

VFA Season

Date	Opponent	Result	Score
1 May	Hotham	LOSS	2-4
8 May	Carlton	LOSS	1-6
15 May	South Melbourne	LOSS	2-3
29 May	Fitzroy	LOSS	2-3
5 June	Essendon	DRAW	3-3
12 June	Hotham	WIN	2-1
19 June	Prahran	WIN	4-2
26 June	Williamstown	WIN	3-2
3 July	Port Melbourne	LOSS	1-4
24 July	Richmond	LOSS	4-5
31 July	South Melbourne	LOSS	1-6
7 August	Fitzroy	WIN	6-1
14 August	Essendon	WIN	3-2
21 August	University	WIN	6-0
28 August	Carlton	WIN	6-5
4 September	Port Melbourne	WIN	5-1
11 September	Richmond	WIN	5-2
18 September	South Williamstown	WIN	6-2
25 September	Geelong	LOSS	2-7
2 October	Williamstown	LOSS	3-4

Other matches

Date	Opponent	Result
17 April	Public Schools	WIN	3-1
28 April	Scotch College	WIN	6-1
22 May	South Ballarat	WIN	5-4
10 July	Launceston	WIN	5-2
14 July	Southern Tasmania	LOSS	1-8
17 July	Southern Tasmania	WIN	3-2
17 July	Kyneton	LOSS	0-3

Players

George Aitken, R. Aitken, WR Bailey, S. Baird, R. Brown, W. Burns, B. Buscombe, Billy Carroll, Cleary, A. Coulson, Charles Coulson, T. Dickeson, T. Dodds, A. Edwards, J. Elliott, T. Elliott, Finlay, F. Franks, C. Garton, Ed Griffith, F. Hallett, George Hallett, Henry, J Johnson, W. Johnson, James Kelly, Joe Kerrigan, Lacey, E. Lynar, S. Lynar, F. Lyons, E. Manifold, A. McCrindle, McEachern, McPhee, P. Millard, W. Morgan, Howard Morrison, Mouritz, J Murphy, PR Murphy, Harry O'Bern, O'Shannessey, P. Parsons, Fred Plant, H. Plant, T. Rand, Dick Robinson, W. Rushton, Ryan, Seymour, C. Spooner, G. Strachan, Staughton, H. Tuckfield, R. Wardrop, Wheeler, D. Willis, H. Wilmott

Goalkickers

S. Baird 22, E. Lynar 12, T. Dodds 9, Billy Carroll 6, R. Aitken 5, Ed Griffith 4, W. Burns 2, P. Murphy 2, R. Brown 1, B. Buscombe 1, T. Dickeson 1, J. Elliott 1, George Hallett 1, F. Lyons 1, P. Millard 1, J Murphy 1, PR Murphy 1, Harry O'Bern 1

Unofficial ladder

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A
1	Geelong	27	24	3	0	208	55
2	South Melbourne	22	19	2	1	125	50
3	Carlton	22	15	1	6	122	81
4	Port Melbourne	24	12	6	6	85	60
5	Fitzroy	23	12	2	9	81	69
6	Hotham	22	10	5	7	70	75
7	Melbourne	24	13	1	10	81	79
8	Essendon	22	7	2	13	61	86
9	Williamstown	25	13	1	11	88	84
10	South Williamstown	16	7	5	4	56	41
11	Footscray	19	4	6	9	30	55
12	St Kilda	18	6	2	10	52	100
13	Prahran	17	4	3	10	42	82
14	Richmond	22	5	1	16	48	95
15	University	22	2	2	18	40	92

Second 20

Date	Opponent	Result	Score	Goalkickers
1 May	Hotham	UNKNOWN	?
8 May	Carlton	WIN	3 -2	Morton, Lynar, Parson
15 May	South Melbourne	WIN	3.6 - 0.5	Lynar 2, Morton
29 May	Fitzroy	LOSS	1.9 - 2.4
5 June	Essendon	UNKNOWN	?
12 June	Hotham	WIN	4.9 - 3.4
19 June	Prahran	WIN	3.12 - 1.2	Hubbard 2, Parsons 1
26 June	Williamstown	WIN	4.9 - 0.1
3 July	University	UNKNOWN	?
10 July	St Kilda	WIN	4.12 - 0.3	Marshall, Dennis, Parsons, Plant
17 July	Kyneton	LOSS	0.1 - 3.10
24 July	Richmond	DRAW	1.3 - 3.9
31 July	South Melbourne	DRAW	1.8 - 1.2	Morton
7 August	Fitzroy	WIN	3.7 to 1.5
28 August	Carlton	2.5 to 3.5	Dennis 2
4 September	Brighton	UNKNOWN	?
11 September	Xavier College	UNKNOWN	?

Notes

• Jas Byrne may have been James Byrne
• Newspapers list a match against Public Schools on Saturday 17 April as scheduled, but there are no reports in the Monday papers.
• Newspapers list a game against St Kilda Rovers on Monday 14/06 but no results are given the next day. This is probably a second 20's match.
• A match against Kyneton is shown as happening on the same day Melbourne were in Tasmania. This is therefore assumed to be a second 20 match.

Media
The Argus - 07/04/1886
The Australasian - 10/04/1886
Weekly Times - 10/04/1886
The Argus - 03/05/1886
Sydney Mail - 22/05/1886
The Argus - 07/07/1886
The Sydney Times - 17/07/1886
The Australasian - 17/07/1886
The Australasian - 24/07/1886
Weekly Times - 21/08/1886
Origins of Australian Football: Volume 3 by Mark Pennings

Links
Footystats Chronology
footytimeline.com
VFA Results and Tables