2009

Coach: Dean Bailey
Captain: James McDonald
Finishing Position: 16th (Last)
Best and Fairest: Aaron Davey
Leading Goalkicker: Russell Robertson (29 goals)
Best First Year Player: Liam Jurrah
Major Sponsor: Hankook/Kaspersky Lab (Joint)
Members: 31,506

Matches	Ladder	Playing List	Best and Fairest	VFL	Tribunal	Drafts and Trading

After a disappointing 2008 campaign which brought the first wooden spoon to the club since 1997 Melbourne were tipped to once more be amongst the strugglers in '09. That too had been the case in 1998 but that side ended up playing a preliminary final. This year's model, though, were part of a rebuilding phase and without experienced recruits they were always going to struggle.

The goal, then, was to win more than the three games of the previous year and to avoid humiliating defeats like they'd suffered at the hands of Hawthorn, Western Bulldogs and Geelong in 2008.

Round 22 saw the Demons put up a brave fight against minor premiers St. Kilda before finally succumbing and earning themselves the prized priority picks.

Despite back-to-back last place finishes, the season ended with an air of optimism. At the Best and Fairest dinner, Jim Stynes appeared in public for the first time with a shaved head due to his ongoing cancer treatment and called the year "the dawning of a new era", saying the team was "in a position where we're on our way back, and that's a great feeling". Don McLardy, acting as President while Stynes was ill said: "We're possibly the most positive wooden spooner in history", while coach Dean Bailey said the club had "laid the foundations", and "from this year on we are not only competing, we are competing to win".

The club was subsequently accused of not competing to win in 2009. The AFL initially cleared them of suspicions that they ensured no more than four wins to secure a priority draft pick, but in 2012 the league launched an investigation into Melbourne's 2009 season after comments by Brock McLean that the club had not been trying to win. After an exhaustive seven month inquiry it was deemed that Melbourne were not guilty of losing games deliberately, but that Dean Bailey and Chris Connolly had acted improperly during the year. Bailey and Connolly were suspended and the club was fined $500,000.

VFL affiliate Casey reached the first round of the finals but were beaten by more than a hundred points by Collingwood with just three Melbourne players in the side.

Port Adelaide Shaun Burgoyne named Melbourne as one of his preferred clubs after announcing he was leaving the Power at the end of the year. After meeting with the Demons he elected to negotiate with Hawthorn instead.

During Grand Final week it was announced that midfielder Brock McLean had requested a trade. He went to Carlton in exchange for 2009 National Draft selection #11. Aaron Davey turned back offers to leave, signing a four year contract extension.

The club made an operational profit of $20,051 for the year, a turnaround of nearly $3 million. With the proceeds of the Debt Demolition campaign included the result was a $567,132 profit.

NAB Cup

Round	Opposition	Result	Score
1	Hawthorn	LOSS	66-69

Practice Matches

Opposition	Result	Score
Sydney	LOSS	55-63
Brisbane	WIN	73-36
Western Bulldogs	LOSS	63-101

Premiership Season

Round	Opposition	Result	Score
1	North Melbourne	LOSS	67-101
2	Collingwood	LOSS	64-117
3	Port Adelaide	LOSS	90-147
4	Richmond	WIN	100-92
5	Adelaide	LOSS	34-51
6	Geelong	LOSS	68-111
7	West Coast	LOSS	82-90
8	Western Bulldogs	LOSS	97-104
9	Hawthorn	LOSS	92-114
10	St. Kilda	LOSS	46-83
11	Collingwood	LOSS	60-126
12	Essendon	LOSS	83-131
13	Brisbane	LOSS	56-111
14	West Coast	WIN	112-92
15	Port Adelaide	WIN	101-90
16	Geelong	LOSS	71-117
17	Sydney	LOSS	50-68
18	Richmond	LOSS	82-86
19	North Melbourne	LOSS	61-123
20	Fremantle	WIN	127-64
21	Carlton	LOSS	96-153
22	St. Kilda	LOSS	67-114

Ladder

	W	D	L	%	P
St. Kilda	20	0	2	155.7	80
Geelong	18	0	4	127.4	72
Western Bulldogs	15	0	7	122.6	60
Collingwood	15	0	7	122.3	60
Adelaide	14	0	8	117.6	56
Brisbane	13	1	8	106.7	54
Carlton	13	0	9	110.5	52
Essendon	10	1	11	97.8	42
Hawthorn	9	0	13	92.5	36
Port Adelaide	9	0	13	88.7	36
West Coast	8	0	14	93.3	32
Sydney	8	0	14	93.1	32
North Melbourne	7	1	14	83.4	30
Fremantle	6	0	16	77.3	24
Richmond	5	1	16	74.3	22
Melbourne	4	0	18	74.7	16

Senior List

Number	Name	Games	Goals
1	Simon Buckley	1	0
2	Nathan Jones	20	8
3	Clint Bartram	15	1
4	Jack Watts	3	2
5	Brock McLean	19	7
6	Matthew Bate	20	27
7	Brad Miller	17	19
8	James Frawley	20	1
10	Cale Morton	21	9
11	Paul Johnson	18	6
12	Colin Sylvia	17	17
14	Lynden Dunn	13	8
15	Ricky Petterd	18	19
16	Jack Grimes	11	2
18	Brad Green	12	12
19	Addam Maric	6	5
20	Colin Garland	1	0
21	Daniel Bell	3	0
22	Brent Moloney	21	7
23	James McDonald (c)	18	2
24	Russell Robertson	13	29
25	Kyle Cheney	12	0
26	John Meesen	4	0
27	Jared Rivers	20	0
29	Michael Newton	5	6
30	Tom McNamara	3	1
31	Paul Wheatley	3	1
32	Cameron Bruce	19	9
33	Austin Wonaeamirri	0	0
34	Stefan Martin	19	6
36	Aaron Davey	22	9
37	Matthew Warnock	17	0
39	Neville Jetta	15	7
40	Mark Jamar	7	7
41	Rohan Bail	1	0
43	Jamie Bennell	16	2
45	Matthew Whelan	10	1
46	Sam Blease	0	0
47	James Strauss	0	0
48	Liam Jurrah	9	20

Rookie List

Number	Name	Games	Goals
35	Trent Zomer	0	0
38	Daniel Hughes	0	0
42	Jake Spencer	6	0
44	Shane Valenti	6	2
49	Jordie McKenzie	3	0
50	Rhys Healey	0	0

Best and Fairest

After each round, the five members of the match committee rate the best players with a score out of four. There is no limit on the number of players who can receive votes. The maximum amount of votes a player can receive per round is 20.

	Player	Votes
1st	Aaron Davey	82
2nd	Brent Moloney	69
3rd	Cameron Bruce	56
4th	Matthew Bate	47
5th	Nathan Jones	44
5th	Colin Sylvia	44
5th	Matthew Warnock	44
8th	James Frawley	43
10th	James McDonald	42
10th	Cale Morton	42
11th	Brock McLean	41
12th	Jared Rivers	39
13th	Mark Jamar	30
14th	Brad Green	29
15th	Ricky Petterd	28
16th	Jack Grimes	24
17th	Liam Jurrah	21
18th	Clint Bartram	20
19th	Brad Miller	19
20th	Paul Johnson	16
21st	Jamie Bennell	15
22nd	Russell Robertson	14
23rd	Stefan Martin	13
24th	Lynden Dunn	12
25th	Shane Valenti	11
26th	Kyle Cheney	9
26th	Neville Jetta	9
28th	John Meesen	8
29th	Matthew Whelan	6
30th	Michael Newton	4
30th	Jake Spencer	4
32nd	Addam Maric	3
33rd	Paul Wheatley	2

Other awards
Norm Smith Memorial Trophy - Coaches Award - James Frawley
Ian Ridley Club Ambassador Award - Shane Valenti
Ron Barassi Jnr Leadership Award - Brent Moloney
Troy Broadbridge Memorial Trophy - Shane Valenti

VFL

2009 VFL Casey Scorpions season
10 wins, 0 draws, 8 losses, 6th place

Finals

Round	Opposition	Result	Score
EF	Collingwood	LOSS	62-177

Tribunal

Round	Player	Charge	Sanction
NAB Cup R1	Paul Johnson	Striking	Not Guilty
Practice Match	Clint Bartram	Striking	Withdrawn
Round 5	Jared Rivers	Umpire Contact	$2600 fine
Round 8	Lynden Dunn	Umpire Contact	$1950 fine
Round 14	Ricky Petterd	Abusive Language	$900 fine
Round 14	Colin Sylvia	Striking	3 matches
Round 21	Mark Jamar	Umpire Contact	$1950 fine
Round 22	Nathan Jones	Umpire Contact	$2850 fine

Media
Age - 22/10/2009
melbournefc.com.au - 21/12/2009