Coach: John Northey
Captain: Greg Healy
Finishing Position: 5th (Runners-Up)
Best and Fairest: Steven O'Dwyer
Leading Goalkicker: Ricky Jackson (43)
Best First Year Player: Andy Lovell
Major Sponsor: Drake
Members: 10,078
Financial result: +$297,204
| Matches | Ladder | Playing List | Best and Fairest | Reserves | Under 19s |
Despite making their first finals series since 1964, and almost qualifying for the Grand Final, Melbourne made a number of list changes. Not all were enforced - Robert Flower, Peter Giles, Steven Icke, Peter Kiel and Robin White retired. Adrian Battiston went to Sydney, Steve Turner to St. Kilda and Joe Rugolo joined Sandringham.
Replacing them were Jamie Duursma, Steven Febey, David Flintoff, Andy Lovell and Jay Viney. Greg Healy became the club's youngest ever captain at 22-years-old.
After their narrow miss in the previous year's Preliminary Final, bookies opened the Demons at 10/1 for the flag, and evens to make the finals.
Pre-Season training took place at Ballarat where John Northey engaged Australian marathon runner, and Melbourne fan, Steve Monaghetti to accompany his players on a 7.5 hill climb run. While the professional wasn't running at 100% he was still beaten to the line by Jim Stynes in a sprint finish.
In league rule changes, the 15m penalty which had sunk the Demons in the '87 prelim was increased to a 50m penalty.
A late season slump saw Melbourne fall into the five where they had a thrilling win over West Coast in the first week. Matched up in a preliminary final against Carlton the Demons avoided the mistakes of the year before and qualified for the Grand Final at last. Hawthorn, though, were a far sterner test than they had been in 1987 and kicked away to a record 96 point Grand Final victory.
The Demons used 32 players for the season, the equal least of any season since 1987.
Practice Matches
| Opposition | Result | ||||
| Hawthorn | WIN | ||||
| Carlton | WIN | ||||
| West Coast | LOSS | ||||
National Panasonic Cup
| Round | Opposition | Result | |||
| 1 | BYE | ||||
| 2 | Fitzroy | LOSS | |||
Home and Away
| Round | Opposition | Result | |||
| 1 | Richmond | WIN | |||
| 2 | Footscray | WIN | |||
| 3 | Geelong | WIN | |||
| 4 | Brisbane Bears | WIN | |||
| 5 | Sydney | WIN | |||
| 6 | Essendon | LOSS | |||
| 7 | Hawthorn | WIN | |||
| 8 | Fitzroy | WIN | |||
| 9 | St. Kilda | LOSS | |||
| 10 | Collingwood | WIN | |||
| 11 | West Coast | WIN | |||
| 12 | North Melbourne | LOSS | |||
| 13 | Carlton | WIN | |||
| 14 | Geelong | WIN | |||
| 15 | Sydney | LOSS | |||
| 16 | Collingwood | WIN | |||
| 17 | Hawthorn | LOSS | |||
| 18 | West Coast | LOSS | |||
| 19 | Richmond | LOSS | |||
| 20 | Footscray | LOSS | |||
| 21 | Essendon | LOSS | |||
| 22 | Carlton | WIN | |||
| EF | West Coast | WIN | |||
| SF | Collingwood | WIN | |||
| PF | Carlton | WIN | |||
| GF | Hawthorn | LOSS | |||
Ladder
| W | D | L | % | P | |
| Hawthorn | 19 | 0 | 3 | 142.3 | 76 |
| Collingwood | 15 | 1 | 6 | 112.7 | 62 |
| Carlton | 15 | 0 | 7 | 119.4 | 60 |
| West Coast | 13 | 0 | 9 | 1119.4 | 60 |
| Melbourne | 13 | 0 | 9 | 102.1 | 52 |
| Essendon | 12 | 0 | 10 | 108.4 | 48 |
| Sydney | 12 | 0 | 10 | 99.7 | 48 |
| Footscray | 11 | 0 | 11 | 104.3 | 44 |
| Geelong | 10 | 0 | 12 | 104.9 | 40 |
| Richmond | 8 | 0 | 14 | 89.5 | 30 |
| North Melbourne | 7 | 1 | 14 | 89.5 | 30 |
| Fitzroy | 7 | 0 | 15 | 83.8 | 28 |
| Brisbane | 7 | 0 | 15 | 74.6 | 28 |
| St. Kilda | 4 | 0 | 18 | 82.1 | 16 |
Playing List
| Number | Name | Games | Goals | ||
| 1 | Steve O'Dwyer | 24 | 16 | ||
| 3 | Garry Lyon | 22 | 41 | ||
| 4 | Tony Campbell | 17 | 15 | ||
| 5 | Earl Spalding | 22 | 9 | ||
| 7 | Brian Wilson | 25 | 32 | ||
| 8 | Graeme Yeats | 26 | 9 | ||
| 9 | Alan Johnson | 25 | 13 | ||
| 10 | Danny Hughes | 18 | 1 | ||
| 11 | Jim Stynes | 26 | 26 | ||
| 12 | Todd Viney | 12 | 1 | ||
| 14 | Rod Grinter | 19 | 0 | ||
| 15 | David Williams | 21 | 33 | ||
| 16 | Andy Lovell | 22 | 23 | ||
| 17 | Brett Lovett | 26 | 2 | ||
| 18 | Steven Stretch | 26 | 5 | ||
| 19 | Paul Payne | 1 | 0 | ||
| 21 | Steven Febey | 12 | 1 | ||
| 23 | Warren Dean | 7 | 3 | ||
| 24 | Bret Bailey | 16 | 6 | ||
| 25 | Simon Eishold | 7 | 5 | ||
| 26 | Jay Viney | 3 | 2 | ||
| 27 | Sean Wight | 26 | 17 | ||
| 28 | Jamie Duursma | 13 | 0 | ||
| 29 | Dean Chiron | 7 | 0 | ||
| 33 | Greg Healy | 22 | 13 | ||
| 34 | Stephen Newport | 24 | 11 | ||
| 36 | Ted Fidge | 1 | 1 | ||
| 37 | David Flintoff | 9 | 6 | ||
| 39 | Doug Koop | 7 | 0 | ||
| 41 | Peter Rohde | 7 | 0 | ||
| 42 | Brad Sparks | 1 | 1 | ||
| 45 | Ricky Jackson | 26 | 43 | ||
Best and Fairest
| Player | Votes | ||||
| 1st | Steve O'Dwyer | 487 | |||
| 2nd | Brett Lovett | 427 | |||
| 3rd | Alan Johnson | 373 | |||
| 4th | Jim Stynes | 304 | |||
| 5th | Steven Stretch | 280 | |||
| 6th | Graeme Yeats | 230 | |||
| 7th | Ricky Jackson | 181 | |||
| 8th | Garry Lyon | 180 | |||
| 9th | Greg Healy | 176 | |||
| 10th | Brian Wilson | 163 | |||
| 11th | Stephen Newport | 133 | |||
| 12th | Danny Hughes | 106 | |||
| 13th | Jamie Duursma | 92 | |||
| 14th | Rod Grinter | 79 | |||
| 15th | Andy Lovell | 65 | |||
| 16th | Sean Wight | 59 | |||
| 17th | David Williams | 50 | |||
| 18th | Tony Campbell | 45 | |||
| 19th | Simon Eishold | 42 | |||
| 20th | David Flintoff | 31 | |||
| 21st | Bret Bailey | 15 | |||
| 22nd | Dean Chiron | 13 | |||
| 23rd | Earl Spalding | 12 | |||
| 24th | Steven Febey | 6 | |||
| 25th | Peter Rohde | 5 | |||
| 25th | Todd Viney | 5 | |||
Other Awards
Redlegs Trophy - Jim Stynes
Tribunal
| Round | Player | Charge | Sanction | ||
| Round 2 | Rod Grinter | Striking | 6 matches | ||
| Round 6 | Brett Lovett | Striking | Not Guilty | ||
| Round 6 | Brett Lovett | Striking | Not Guilty | ||
| Round 7 | Danny Hughes | Striking | 2 matches | ||
| Round 10 | Ted Fidge | Striking | 6 matches | ||
| Round 17 | Danny Hughes | Striking | 4 matches | ||
| Round 22 | Steve O'Dwyer | Striking | Not Guilty | ||
| Round 22 | Rod Grinter | Striking | Not Guilty | ||
| PF | Steve O'Dwyer | Striking | 3 matches | ||
Reserves
1988 Reserves Season
Best and Fairest - Doug Koop
| W | D | L | % | P | |
| Footscray | 19 | 0 | 3 | 172.0 | 76 |
| North Melbourne | 17 | 0 | 5 | 128.8 | 68 |
| Hawthorn | 15 | 0 | 7 | 121.7 | 60 |
| Carlton | 15 | 0 | 7 | 105.8 | 60 |
| Essendon | 12 | 1 | 9 | 112.8 | 50 |
| Collingwood | 12 | 0 | 10 | 105.8 | 48 |
| Fitzroy | 10 | 0 | 12 | 99.0 | 40 |
| Richmond | 8 | 0 | 14 | 82.2 | 32 |
| Melbourne | 7 | 1 | 14 | 84.3 | 30 |
| Geelong | 6 | 1 | 15 | 91.8 | 26 |
| St Kilda | 6 | 1 | 15 | 75.0 | 26 |
| Sydney | 3 | 0 | 19 | 65.5 | 12 |
Under 19s
Best and Fairest - Denis Knight
| W | D | L | % | P | |
| North Melbourne | 18 | 0 | 2 | 216.4 | 72 |
| Carlton | 14 | 0 | 6 | 106.0 | 56 |
| Geelong | 12 | 0 | 8 | 98.7 | 48 |
| Essendon | 11 | 0 | 9 | 111.9 | 44 |
| Footscray | 11 | 0 | 9 | 111.2 | 44 |
| Collingwood | 10 | 0 | 10 | 95.3 | 40 |
| Melbourne | 8 | 0 | 12 | 96.7 | 32 |
| St Kilda | 8 | 0 | 12 | 87.5 | 32 |
| Richmond | 7 | 0 | 13 | 97.5 | 28 |
| Hawthorn | 6 | 0 | 14 | 70.7 | 24 |
| Fitzroy | 5 | 0 | 15 | 74.7 | 20 |
Links
hardballget.net (Reserves vs VFA match)