Coach: Neale Daniher
Captain: David Neitz
Finishing Position: 11th
Best and Fairest: Adem Yze
Leading Goalkicker: Russell Robertson (42)
Best First Year Player: Scott Thompson
Major Sponsor: LG Electronics
Members: 22,940
| Matches | Ladder | Playing List | Best and Fairest | VFL | |
While the beaten Grand Finalists were expected to be amongst the contenders again, the year started badly for Melbourne in January when the State Government announced a ban on poker machine licences in several council areas. The club had invested $2.5 million in a social club that was no longer viable. After five years of negotiations with one council, where pokies were still allowed, the boundaries changed to leave Melbourne's proposed venue on the wrong side of the road, in the banned area. They were forced to write-off losses of nearly $750,000 on the project.
The club spent a week at the Australian Institute of Sport and played an intra-club game in Canberra as part of their preparation for the new season, and players practiced tackling with the NRL's Melbourne Storm. David Neitz remained captain, assisted by Vice-Captain Shane Woewodin who was promoted to replace David Schwarz in March. Jeff White and Andrew Leoncelli were deputy vice captains.
A dramatic fall down the ladder was not helped by injuries to midfielders Stephen Powell Travis Johnstone, Jeff White, Andrew Leoncelli, Shane Woewodin and Guy Rigoni. Off-field turmoil also took the focus off football, as President Joseph Gutnick went to war with the AFL after being threatened with a $20,000 fine for commenting on a racial vilification investigation involving David Schwarz and Justin Murphy of Geelong after Round 3. Gutnick denied that former number one ticketholder Ron Walker was planning to challenge him, but resigned in May after being denied an injunction against a board meeting that was set to sack him. Gabriel Szondy became president, and was re-elected with control of the board after elections. With Gutnick opting not to pay the last $300,000 of his promised $3 million cash injection for the club, they were forced to borrow $250,000 from director Peter Hayes.
The contested board election was held on 18 December, and while polling suggested Gutnick and his 'Melbourne First' group would win, Szondy and 'Team Vision' secured around 65% of the vote on a turnout of approximately 75% of eligible members.
Elected Directors
| Candidate | Ticket | Votes | |||
| Robert Flower | Team Vision | 10,529 | |||
| Gary Hardeman | Team Vision | 6,834 | |||
| Peter Hayes | Team Vision | 6,804 | |||
| Beverley O'Connor | Team Vision | 6,799 | |||
| Stephen Bickford | Team Vision | 6,694 | |||
| Gabriel Szondy | Team Vision | 6,684 | |||
| Peter Dohrmann | Team Vision | 6,597 | |||
| Robert Jamieson | Team Vision | 6,560 | |||
| Paul Gardner | Team Vision | 6,550 | |||
| Craig Perrett | Team Vision | 6,524 | |||
Unsuccessful Candidates
| Candidate | Ticket | Votes | |||
| Joseph Gutnick | Melbourne First | 4,235 | |||
| Michael Givoni | Melbourne First | 4,150 | |||
| Greg Sword | Melbourne First | 4,127 | |||
| Sally Dimmick | Melbourne First | 4,121 | |||
| Fiona McNabb | Melbourne First | 4,087 | |||
| Warren Stooke | Melbourne First | 4,028 | |||
| John Fowler | Melbourne First | 4,024 | |||
| Allen Dewhirst | Melbourne First | 4,021 | |||
| Philip Eddy | Melbourne First | 3,999 | |||
During the year Melbourne joined fellow cash-strapped Victorian clubs St Kilda and Western Bulldogs in arguing against the AFL Players Association's proposed 10 per cent pay increase for players, suggesting a 5 per cent increase could be achieved without potentially putting clubs out of business.
Ansett Australia Cup
| Round | Opposition | Result | Score | ||
| 1 | Fremantle | WIN | 98-57 | ||
| 2 | Richmond | LOSS | 65-97 | ||
| 3 | Hawthorn | LOSS | 43-143 | ||
Ansett Cup Group 4 Ladder
| W | D | L | % | P | |
| Hawthorn | 2 | 0 | 1 | 173.75 | 8 |
| Richmond | 2 | 0 | 1 | 140.00 | 8 |
| Melbourne | 1 | 0 | 2 | 69.38 | 4 |
| Fremantle | 1 | 0 | 2 | 62.28 | 4 |
Practice Matches
| Opposition | Result | Score | |||
| Essendon | WIN | 122-90 | |||
| Collingwood | WIN | 105-87 | |||
Premiership Season
| Round | Opposition | Result | Score | ||
| 1 | Richmond | LOSS | 103-134 | ||
| 2 | Adelaide | WIN | 83-80 | ||
| 3 | Geelong | WIN | 124-104 | ||
| 4 | Hawthorn | LOSS | 44-83 | ||
| 5 | Sydney | WIN | 119-104 | ||
| 6 | Fremantle | WIN | 119-74 | ||
| 7 | Western Bulldogs | LOSS | 77-107 | ||
| 8 | Essendon | LOSS | 79-85 | ||
| 9 | Port Adelaide | LOSS | 68-88 | ||
| 10 | St. Kilda | WIN | 144-113 | ||
| 11 | Collingwood | LOSS | 57-134 | ||
| 12 | Brisbane Lions | LOSS | 99-148 | ||
| 13 | West Coast | LOSS | 88-95 | ||
| 14 | Kangaroos | LOSS | 93-121 | ||
| 15 | Carlton | WIN | 117-111 | ||
| 16 | Richmond | LOSS | 86-127 | ||
| 17 | Adelaide | LOSS | 84-100 | ||
| 18 | Geelong | WIN | 103-100 | ||
| 19 | Hawthorn | LOSS | 71-156 | ||
| 20 | Sydney | WIN | 131-98 | ||
| 21 | Fremantle | WIN | 114-79 | ||
| 22 | Western Bulldogs | WIN | 133-123 | ||
Ladder
| W | D | L | % | P | |
| Essendon | 17 | 0 | 5 | 134.5 | 68 |
| Brisbane | 17 | 0 | 5 | 127.6 | 68 |
| Port Adelaide | 16 | 0 | 6 | 128.9 | 64 |
| Richmond | 15 | 0 | 7 | 107.8 | 60 |
| Carlton | 14 | 0 | 8 | 128.6 | 56 |
| Hawthorn | 13 | 0 | 9 | 105.3 | 52 |
| Sydney | 12 | 0 | 10 | 115.7 | 48 |
| Adelaide | 12 | 0 | 10 | 102.9 | 48 |
| Collingwood | 11 | 0 | 11 | 106.9 | 44 |
| Western Bulldogs | 10 | 0 | 12 | 93.8 | 40 |
| Melbourne | 10 | 0 | 12 | 90.4 | 40 |
| Geelong | 9 | 0 | 13 | 93.8 | 36 |
| Kangaroos | 9 | 0 | 13 | 91.1 | 36 |
| West Coast | 5 | 0 | 17 | 65.9 | 20 |
| St. Kilda | 4 | 0 | 18 | 72.6 | 16 |
| Fremantle | 2 | 0 | 20 | 72.0 | 8 |
Playing List
| Number | Player | Games | Goals | ||
| 4 | Brent Grgic | 14 | 0 | ||
| 5 | David Schwarz | 21 | 21 | ||
| 6 | Scott Thompson | 9 | 2 | ||
| 8 | Alistair Nicholson | 22 | 1 | ||
| 9 | David Neitz | 22 | 38 | ||
| 10 | Daniel Ward | 22 | 10 | ||
| 11 | Troy Simmonds | 13 | 2 | ||
| 13 | Adem Yze | 22 | 24 | ||
| 14 | Steven Pitt | 2 | 0 | ||
| 15 | Ross Funcke | 5 | 1 | ||
| 16 | Travis Johnstone | 5 | 1 | ||
| 18 | Brad Green | 21 | 37 | ||
| 19 | Ben Beams | 5 | 4 | ||
| 20 | Troy Broadbridge | 12 | 2 | ||
| 21 | Steven Febey | 20 | 7 | ||
| 22 | Shane Woewodin | 20 | 7 | ||
| 23 | James McDonald | 15 | 3 | ||
| 24 | Russell Robertson | 22 | 42 | ||
| 25 | Nathan Brown | 19 | 6 | ||
| 26 | Luke Williams | 9 | 4 | ||
| 27 | Anthony Ingerson | 10 | 0 | ||
| 28 | Matthew Collins | 9 | 1 | ||
| 29 | Chris Lamb | 3 | 0 | ||
| 30 | Simon Godfrey | 12 | 2 | ||
| 31 | Paul Wheatley | 16 | 5 | ||
| 32 | Cameron Bruce | 22 | 31 | ||
| 33 | Jeff Farmer | 14 | 33 | ||
| 34 | Jeff White | 21 | 3 | ||
| 35 | Anthony McDonald | 20 | 6 | ||
| 36 | Andrew Leoncelli | 18 | 11 | ||
| 41 | Darren Jolly | 4 | 0 | ||
| 42 | Peter Walsh | 16 | 4 | ||
| 43 | Guy Rigoni | 10 | 3 | ||
| 45 | Matthew Whelan | 9 | 1 | ||
Best and Fairest
Five members of the match committee select the best five players each week and rate them out of 10.
| Player | Votes | ||||
| 1st | Adem Yze | 331 | |||
| 2nd | David Neitz | 228 | |||
| 3rd | David Schwarz | 210 | |||
| 4th | Steven Febey | 187 | |||
| 5th | Daniel Ward | 138 | |||
| 6th | Jeff White | 137 | |||
| 7th | Russell Robertson | 122 | |||
| 8th | Andrew Leoncelli | 119 | |||
| 9th | Cameron Bruce | 118 | |||
| 10th | Peter Walsh | 112 | |||
| 11th | Alistair Nicholson | 107 | |||
| 12th | Shane Woewodin | 102 | |||
| 13th | Nathan Brown | 101 | |||
| 14th | Matthew Whelan | 87 | |||
| 15th | James McDonald | 79 | |||
| 16th | Anthony McDonald | 70 | |||
| 17th | Ross Funcke | 60 | |||
| 18th | Jeff Farmer | 58 | |||
| 19th | Paul Wheatley | 56 | |||
| 20th | Simon Godfrey | 45 | |||
| 21st | Brent Grgic | 33 | |||
| 22nd | Brad Green | 32 | |||
| 23rd | Matthew Collins | 31 | |||
| 24th | Luke Williams | 26 | |||
| 25th | Travis Johnstone | 25 | |||
| 26th | Scott Thompson | 20 | |||
| 27th | Troy Simmonds | 12 | |||
| 28th | Troy Broadbridge | 5 | |||
| 29th | Anthony Ingerson | 3 | |||
Other Awards
Best Team Player - David Neitz
Most Consistent - Adem Yze
Most Improved - Troy Broadbridge
Best Clubman and Award for Services to Marketing & Administration - Russell Robertson
| Round | Player | Charge | Sanction | ||
| Ansett Cup Match 1 | Jeff Farmer | Charging | 2 weeks | ||
| Practice Match | Brent Grgic | Abusive Language | $1200 fine | ||
| Round 3 | Daniel Ward | Abusive language | Withdrawn | ||
| Round 7 | David Schwarz | Striking | Withdrawn | ||
| Round 9 | James McDonald | Wrestling | $1200 fine | ||
| Round 13 | David Neitz | Wrestling | $3000 fine | ||
| Round 18 | Adem Yze | Charging | Not Guilty | ||
| Round 22 | David Neitz | Wrestling | Withdrawn | ||
| Round 22 | David Neitz | Wrestling | $5000 fine | ||
| Round 22 | David Neitz | Striking | Not Guilty | ||
Coaching Staff
Chris Fagan - Assistant Coach
Brian Royal - Assistant Coach
Peter Banfield - Assistant Coach
Graeme Yeats - Assistant Coach/Sandringham coach
Jim Stynes - Ruck Coach
VFL
Sandringham Zebras 2001 season
Media
Herald Sun - 09/01/2001
Age - 24/01/2001
Herald Sun - 10/02/2001
Herald Sun - 07/03/2001
Herald Sun - 27/04/2001
Age - 11/05/2001