Coach: Frank Hughes
Captain: Allan La Fontaine
Finishing Position: 4th
Best and Fairest: Allan La Fontaine
Leading Goalkicker: Eric Glass (56)
Best First Year Player: n/a
Members: 1775
| Matches | Ladder | Playing List | Tribunal | Seconds | |
Melbourne's rebuild under Checker Hughes and Percy Page finally began to pay off, with a return to the finals for the first time since 1928. To further the club's nickname of 'Demons', Hughes installed a large 'demonical' head in the training rooms, complete with a red feather protruding from its cap.
Allan La Fontaine became captain, with Percy Beames as vice-captain and Les Jones deputy vice-captain.
Round 10 games were pushed back a week due to torrential rain on Saturday 4 July. On Tuesday 21 July a combined Melbourne-St Kilda team played against the visiting East Perth. Melbourne players involved were Ball, Lock, Kelly, Feltscheer, Barassi, Baggott, Furniss, Roberts, Foster and Reiffel.
With a last round game against premiership fancies Collingwood, and their nearest challenger Geelong playing the lowly Hawthorn, the Demons made sure of a top four berth with a narrow win at Footscray. They won another thriller in the Semi Final, a first finals win since the 1926 premiership, but were well beaten by South Melbourne in the Preliminary Final.
The Seconds made their fifth consecutive Grand Final, but were defeated. The Seconds played a pre-season game against the Prahran City club of the League Sub-District competition, who Melbourne was sponsoring. There were only five junior clubs in the district due to a lack of suitable grounds, leaving Melbourne as the driving force in an attempt to abolish the district recruiting scheme.
The club had another financial loss, but continued to improve their position. They lost £1300 on receipts of £2727 against expenses of £4026.
Practice match
| Opposition | Result | Score | |||
| Prahran | WIN | 109-66 | |||
| Brunswick | WIN | ? | |||
Premiership season
| Round | Opposition | Result | Score | ||
| 1 | South Melbourne | LOSS | 87-108 | ||
| 2 | Fitzroy | WIN | 107-59 | ||
| 3 | Geelong | LOSS | 32-102 | ||
| 4 | Hawthorn | WIN | 116-77 | ||
| 5 | North Melbourne | WIN | 122-75 | ||
| 6 | Footscray | WIN | 96-80 | ||
| 7 | Collingwood | LOSS | 67-89 | ||
| 8 | St. Kilda | WIN | 131-101 | ||
| 9 | Carlton | WIN | 83-68 | ||
| 10 | Essendon | WIN | 111-67 | ||
| 11 | Richmond | WIN | 112-103 | ||
| 12 | South Melbourne | WIN | 148-96 | ||
| 13 | Fitzroy | LOSS | 85-91 | ||
| 14 | Geelong | LOSS | 100-105 | ||
| 15 | Hawthorn | WIN | 112-62 | ||
| 16 | North Melbourne | WIN | 107-45 | ||
| 17 | Footscray | WIN | 72-65 | ||
| 18 | Collingwood | LOSS | 67-84 | ||
| SF | Carlton | WIN | 97-88 | ||
| PF | South Melbourne | LOSS | 63-89 | ||
Exhibition match
| Opposition | Result | Score | |||
| Gippsland XVIII | WIN | 108-100 | |||
Ladder
| W | D | L | % | P | |
| South Melbourne | 16 | 0 | 2 | 118.5 | 64 |
| Collingwood | 15 | 0 | 3 | 135.6 | 60 |
| Carlton | 12 | 0 | 6 | 124.8 | 48 |
| Melbourne | 12 | 0 | 6 | 118.8 | 48 |
| Geelong | 11 | 0 | 7 | 125.8 | 44 |
| Richmond | 10 | 0 | 8 | 107.9 | 40 |
| St. Kilda | 9 | 0 | 9 | 96.1 | 36 |
| Essendon | 6 | 0 | 12 | 85.1 | 24 |
| Hawthorn | 6 | 0 | 12 | 80.9 | 24 |
| Footscray | 5 | 0 | 13 | 86.5 | 20 |
| North Melbourne | 4 | 0 | 14 | 75.9 | 16 |
| Fitzroy | 2 | 0 | 16 | 68.9 | 8 |
Playing List
| Number | Player | Games | Goals | ||
| 1 | Gordon Jones | 2 | 1 | ||
| 2 | Lou Reiffel | 16 | 31 | ||
| 3 | John Lewis | 17 | 11 | ||
| 4 | Norm Smith | 11 | 28 | ||
| 5 | Bill Deague | 18 | 2 | ||
| 6 | Joe Kinnear | 6 | 0 | ||
| 6 | Jack Harrison | 2 | 2 | ||
| 7 | Bert Taylor | 13 | 7 | ||
| 8 | Rowley Fischer | 15 | 1 | ||
| 9 | Charlie Longhurst | 3 | 0 | ||
| 10 | Jack Bennett | 10 | 10 | ||
| 11 | Sid Meehl | 5 | 0 | ||
| 11 | Harden Dean | 1 | 0 | ||
| 12 | Jack Mueller | 18 | 5 | ||
| 13 | Les Jones | 20 | 23 | ||
| 14 | Maurie Gibb | 19 | 18 | ||
| 15 | Ron Baggott | 14 | 26 | ||
| 16 | Eric Glass | 19 | 56 | ||
| 17 | Allan La Fontaine | 19 | 11 | ||
| 18 | Wally Lock | 10 | 1 | ||
| 19 | Frank Roberts | 18 | 1 | ||
| 20 | Harry Long | 9 | 0 | ||
| 21 | Bill Ralston | 5 | 2 | ||
| 22 | Ken Feltscheer | 2 | 0 | ||
| 23 | Ray Wartman | 20 | 7 | ||
| 24 | Percy Beames | 14 | 17 | ||
| 25 | Frank Kelly | 3 | 1 | ||
| 26 | Jack Furniss | 16 | 1 | ||
| 27 | Archie Roberts | 4 | 0 | ||
| 28 | Pat McNamara | 17 | 0 | ||
| 29 | Jock Ball | 2 | 0 | ||
| 30 | Jack Foster | 12 | 8 | ||
| 31 | Ron Barassi | 4 | 0 | ||
| 32 | Gordon Ogden | 16 | 0 | ||
Best and Fairest
| Player | |||||
| 1st | Allan La Fontaine | ||||
Awards
Best Utility Player - Les Jones
Special Effort - Jack Mueller
Most Reliable Player - Gordon Ogden
Most determined - Rowley Fischer
Special Training award - Norm Smith, Pat McNamara
Special Clubman award - Ron Barassi
Most improved senior - Maurie Gibb
Most improved junior - Jack Furniss, Wally Lock
Best Finals Player - Ray Wartman
Tribunal
| Round | Player | Charge | Sanction | ||
| Round 4 | Sid Meehl | Refusing to return to mark | Not Guilty | ||
| Round 4 | Harry Long | Elbowing | Not Guilty | ||
| Round 4 | Harry Long | Refusing to return to mark | Not Guilty | ||
| Round 4 | Harry Long | Striking | 4 matches | ||
| Round 6 | Ron Baggott | Threatening Behaviour | Not Guilty | ||
| Round 6 | Ron Baggott | Retaliating | 4 matches | ||
| Round 6 | Eric Glass | Striking | Withdrawn | ||
| Round 10 | Charlie Longhurst | Kicking | 8 matches | ||
| Round 10 | John Lewis | Striking | Not Guilty | ||
| Round 10 | Joe Kinnear | Elbowing | Not Guilty | ||
| Round 12 | John Lewis | Throwing ball at player | Guilty | ||
| Round 13 | Eric Glass | Violently shaking | Not Guilty | ||
| PF | Frank Roberts | Charging | 2 matches | ||
Seconds
| W | D | L | P | ||
| Melbourne | 16 | 0 | 2 | 64 | |
| Collingwood | 16 | 0 | 2 | 64 | |
| Geelong | 14 | 0 | 4 | 56 | |
| Footscray | 13 | 0 | 5 | 52 | |
| Carlton | 13 | 0 | 5 | 52 | |
| South Melbourne | 9 | 0 | 9 | 36 | |
| Essendon | 9 | 0 | 9 | 36 | |
| Richmond | 7 | 0 | 11 | 28 | |
| St Kilda | 5 | 0 | 13 | 20 | |
| Hawthorn | 3 | 0 | 15 | 12 | |
| Fitzroy | 2 | 0 | 16 | 8 | |
| North Melbourne | 1 | 0 | 17 | 4 | |
Finals
| Round | Opposition | Result | Score | ||
| SF | Collingwood | WIN | 106-80 | ||
| GF | Footscray | LOSS | 50-101 | ||
Awards
Most improved - Harden Dean
Most serviceable - Frank Roberts
Media
Sun - 22/01/1936
Sporting Globe - 07/03/1936
Sporting Globe - 24/06/1936
Herald - 02/07/1936
Herald - 14/07/1936
Football Record R11 1936
Herald - 16/02/1937
Links
AFL Tables page
Wikipedia page
Membership image and 1936 team courtesy of grandoldflag.net