Coach: Norm Smith
Captain: Noel McMahen
Finishing Position: 1st (Premiers)
Best and Fairest: Stuart Spencer
Leading Goalkicker: Robert B Johnson (43)
Best First Year Player: Jim Sandral
| Matches | Ladder | Playing List | Best and Fairest | Seconds | Thirds |
Tossed off the MCG due to preparations for the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, the reigning premiers were forced to use Olympic Park as an alternative training venue before moving to the Albert Ground from the start of the season, where they remained until August. The Thirds were forced to play at the Albert Ground all season while curtain raisers were banned from the MCG.
The ground was unavailable to the senior side for the first four rounds of the season, though the Round 1 game was moved to Punt Road on the request of the club, and a lesser side could have been expected to struggle amongst the chaos, but this Melbourne outfit were a class above, and by the time they returned home in Round 5 to unveil the flag against Geelong they were unbeaten.
Even though they'd just won the premiership, Norm Smith admitted before the season that he thought his side was weak in attack and vulnerable to over-confidence.
The Demons were unbeatable for the first thirteen weeks and Athol Webb, Robert B Johnson, Ron Barassi and John Beckwith were amongst the best players in the competition. Two losses in three weeks were quickly overcome, and they finished the season with a 16-2 record - the best in the club's history to that point. They used just 27 players for the year, the equal least of any Melbourne season.
The season ended with three matches against Collingwood, one in Round 18 1956, one in the Semi Final and then the Grand Final 1956. After winning the first two it would have been a major shock if the Demons hadn't won, and they didn't let down their area of the record 115,000 strong crowd.
The reserves had already won the premiership when the senior side ran out, and what is almost universally described as the best Melbourne side ever to take the field, followed their lead to do the 'double'.
A night football competition was played for the first time, but as it was restricted to the eight clubs who had failed to make the finals the Demons weren't involved.
During the Summer Olympics held in Melbourne during summer Denis Cordner captained a combined team of VFA/VFL amateurs in a match against the VAFA as part of a demonstration of Australian Rules Football.
The club made a profit of £1268 for the year. Before the season the league approved an increase in player payments to 6p per match, 3p for emergency players, 2p for listed players, 6p for injured players and 2p for disqualified players.
Ron Barassi and Stuart Spencer were Melbourne's players in a carnival winning interstate side.
Melbourne's VFL delegates were Bert Chadwick and Richard Taylor.
Premiership Season
| Round | Opposition | Result | |||
| 1 | Richmond | WIN | |||
| 2 | Carlton | WIN | |||
| 3 | Footscray | WIN | |||
| 4 | Fitzroy | WIN | |||
| 5 | Geelong | WIN | |||
| 6 | North Melbourne | WIN | |||
| 7 | Collingwood | WIN | |||
| 8 | St. Kilda | WIN | |||
| 9 | Essendon | WIN | |||
| 10 | South Melbourne | WIN | |||
| 11 | Hawthorn | WIN | |||
| 12 | Richmond | WIN | |||
| 13 | Carlton | WIN | |||
| 14 | Footscray | LOSS | |||
| 15 | Fitzroy | WIN | |||
| 16 | Geelong | LOSS | |||
| 17 | North Melbourne | WIN | |||
| 18 | Collingwood | WIN | |||
| SF | Collingwood | WIN | |||
| GF | Collingwood | WIN | |||
Ladder
| W | D | L | % | P | |
| Melbourne | 16 | 0 | 2 | 146.0 | 64 |
| Collingwood | 13 | 0 | 5 | 125.9 | 52 |
| Geelong | 13 | 0 | 5 | 121.9 | 52 |
| Footscray | 11 | 0 | 7 | 114.2 | 44 |
| Carlton | 10 | 1 | 7 | 113.7 | 42 |
| Essendon | 10 | 0 | 8 | 95.8 | 40 |
| Hawthorn | 7 | 1 | 10 | 88.9 | 30 |
| Fitzroy | 7 | 0 | 11 | 89.3 | 28 |
| South Melbourne | 6 | 1 | 11 | 88.1 | 26 |
| Richmond | 6 | 0 | 12 | 86.8 | 24 |
| St. Kilda | 4 | 1 | 13 | 88.0 | 18 |
| North Melbourne | 3 | 0 | 15 | 69.6 | 12 |
Exhibition Games
| Opposition | Result | ||||
| North West Football Union | WIN | ||||
| Port Adelaide | WIN | ||||
| East Perth | WIN | ||||
Playing List
| Number | Name | Games | Goals | ||
| 1 | Denis Cordner | 20 | 2 | ||
| 3 | Peter Marquis | 15 | 4 | ||
| 5 | Ian McLean | 14 | 1 | ||
| 6 | Frank Adams | 7 | 3 | ||
| 7 | Geoff Case | 4 | 0 | ||
| 8 | Jim Sandral | 15 | 2 | ||
| 9 | Brian Dixon | 17 | 5 | ||
| 11 | Laurie Mithen | 18 | 8 | ||
| 12 | Stuart Spencer | 19 | 42 | ||
| 14 | Trevor Johnson | 20 | 1 | ||
| 15 | Athol Webb | 20 | 28 | ||
| 16 | Clyde Laidlaw | 18 | 5 | ||
| 17 | Geoff McGivern | 13 | 0 | ||
| 18 | Bob Johnson | 19 | 43 | ||
| 19 | Keith Carroll | 20 | 0 | ||
| 21 | Peter Cook | 7 | 3 | ||
| 24 | Ian Ridley | 20 | 40 | ||
| 25 | Don Williams | 18 | 0 | ||
| 27 | Denis Jones | 2 | 1 | ||
| 28 | Terry Gleeson | 10 | 2 | ||
| 29 | Tony Bull | 7 | 1 | ||
| 30 | John Beckwith | 20 | 0 | ||
| 31 | Ron Barassi | 19 | 27 | ||
| 33 | Colin Wilson | 2 | 0 | ||
| 34 | Ralph Lane | 18 | 2 | ||
| 35 | Noel McMahen | 19 | 2 | ||
| 38 | Ken Melville | 19 | 1 | ||
Best and Fairest
| Player | Votes | ||||
| 1st | Stuart Spencer | 87.5 | |||
| 2nd | John Beckwith | 87 | |||
| 3rd | Ron Barassi | 50 | |||
Other Awards
Best Clubman - Ralph Lane
Outstanding Service - Brian Dixon
Most Unselfish - Athol Webb
Seconds
Captain - Brian Collopy
Vice Captain - Denis Jones
Best and Fairest - Graham Kerr
Second Best and Fairest - Colin Wilson
Most serviceable - Denis Jones
Outstanding service - Robert Hayes, Dick Atkinson, Brian Collopy, Tom Lay
Grand Final Trophy - John Lord, Ben Crameri
| W | D | L | % | P | |
| South Melbourne | 14 | 0 | 4 | 125.5 | 56 |
| Melbourne | 13 | 0 | 5 | 130.4 | 52 |
| Hawthorn | 12 | 0 | 6 | 134.5 | 48 |
| Richmond | 12 | 0 | 6 | 111.7 | 48 |
| St Kilda | 12 | 0 | 6 | 109.0 | 48 |
| Collingwood | 12 | 0 | 6 | 106.0 | 48 |
| Essendon | 9 | 0 | 9 | 119.9 | 36 |
| Footscray | 6 | 0 | 12 | 88.1 | 24 |
| Carlton | 5 | 0 | 13 | 79.0 | 20 |
| Geelong | 5 | 0 | 13 | 77.3 | 20 |
| Fitzroy | 5 | 0 | 13 | 72.8 | 20 |
| North Melbourne | 3 | 0 | 15 | 72.5 | 12 |
Finals
| Round | Opposition | Result | |||
| SF | South Melbourne | WIN | |||
| GF | South Melbourne | WIN | |||
Thirds
Captain - Noel Williamson
Best and Fairest - Trevor Clay
Second Best and Fairest - Ron Dudley
Outstanding service - Noel Williamson, Kevin Boyle, David McKenzie, Ken Davidson
| W | D | L | % | P | |
| Fitzroy | 13 | 0 | 3 | 163.3 | 52 |
| Collingwood | 13 | 0 | 3 | 138.5 | 52 |
| St Kilda | 12 | 1 | 3 | 130.8 | 50 |
| South Melbourne | 12 | 0 | 4 | 168.1 | 48 |
| Essendon | 11 | 0 | 5 | 129.0 | 44 |
| North Melbourne | 8 | 3 | 5 | 126.0 | 38 |
| Carlton | 6 | 1 | 9 | 90.9 | 26 |
| Geelong | 6 | 0 | 10 | 67.3 | 24 |
| Richmond | 4 | 0 | 12 | 67.3 | 16 |
| Footscray | 3 | 1 | 12 | 70.9 | 14 |
| Hawthorn | 3 | 0 | 13 | 66.2 | 12 |
| Melbourne | 2 | 0 | 14 | 57.4 | 8 |
Fourths
Best and Fairest - Neil Campbell
Second Best and Fairest - Bernie Massey
Outstanding service - L. Scotland, L. Seawood, G. Harris
Notes
Football Record suggests the Demons were planning to play a game against the Western Australian premiers on October 20. The Grand Final Record says they also played in Tasmania and Adelaide before the WA game.
Media
Age - 14/02/1956
Argus - 09/04/1956
Football Record R17 1956
Age - 21/09/1956
Argus - 21/09/1956