For the 2020 AFLW season see 2020 AFLW season
Coach: Simon Goodwin
Captain: Max Gawn
Finishing Position: 9th
Best and Fairest: Christian Petracca
Leading Goalkicker: Bayley Fritsch (22)
Best Young Player: Luke Jackson
Major Sponsor: Zurich/Jaguar
Financial result: -$2,953,532
Members: 40,571
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Five rounds were initially removed from the season due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, with matches to having 16 minute quarters. The season was suspended after Round 1 due to the requirement of travellers entering South Australia or Western Australia to quarantine for 14 days.
The season restarted in mid-June, with a revised fixture where each team only played each other once, and games were announced in four week blocks. On the resumption of the season, Melbourne played one game before their second was postponed due to a positive COVID-19 test by an Essendon player the day before the game. Retrospectively, Round 3 was considered a bye.
The Round 5 game was originally scheduled to be against Sydney, but due to a Queensland government ban on Victorian teams entering the state, Richmond was kept in Victoria to play the Demons. Round 6 was scheduled to be against Fremantle in the Gold Coast and Round 7 against the Bulldogs in Melbourne, but instead Melbourne were scheduled to travel to New South Wales to play the Swans, Hawthorn and Gold Coast.
Due to further travel restrictions, the Round 6 game against Sydney was replaced with a game in Melbourne against Richmond, followed by the Gold Coast and Hawthorn games in reverse order. Round 11 against North Melbourne was scheduled to be played in Hobart, but border restrictions were not lifted in time and the game was switched to Adelaide Oval.
The remainder of the season progressed as scheduled, with all Melbourne's remaining games after Round 12 played in Queensland, except for the Round 14 game in Alice Springs.
A two match stint in Cairns proved pivotal to Melbourne's season. After clawing their way back into finals calculations with a narrow win over St Kilda, the Demons lost two in a row at Cazaly's Stadium. That meant they entered the last two rounds with their fate in the hands of others, and while they won both their remaining games it wasn't enough. The final nail in the coffin came the night after Melbourne's Round 18 win over Essendon, when the Western Bulldogs won to move into the eight at their expense.
On the day of the final game the club was fined $50,000 for a COVID-19 hub breach involving Harley Bennell. It was the club's second of the season, after earlier indiscretions by Charlie Spargo and Kysaiah Pickett.
Practice matches
| Opposition | Result | Score | |||
| Essendon | LOSS | 32-106 | |||
| North Melbourne | WIN | 55-33 | |||
Marsh Community Series
| Opposition | Result | Score | |||
| Adelaide | WIN | 103-70 | |||
| Hawthorn | WIN | 81-49 | |||
Premiership Season (revised fixture from Round 2)
| Round | Opposition | Result | Score | ||
| 1 | West Coast | LOSS | 51-78 | ||
| 2 | Carlton | WIN | 56-55 | ||
| 3 | BYE | ||||
| 4 | Geelong | LOSS | 44-47 | ||
| 5 | Richmond | LOSS | 52-79 | ||
| 6 | Gold Coast | WIN | 80-63 | ||
| 7 | Hawthorn | WIN | 91-48 | ||
| 8 | Brisbane | LOSS | 49-53 | ||
| 9 | Port Adelaide | LOSS | 32-83 | ||
| 10 | Adelaide | WIN | 88-37 | ||
| 11 | North Melbourne | WIN | 92-35 | ||
| 12 | Collingwood | WIN | 100-44 | ||
| 13 | Western Bulldogs | LOSS | 52-80 | ||
| 14 | St Kilda | WIN | 52-49 | ||
| 15 | Sydney | LOSS | 46-67 | ||
| 16 | Fremantle | LOSS | 33-47 | ||
| 17 | Greater Western Sydney | WIN | 79-74 | ||
| 18 | Essendon | WIN | 68-49 | ||
Ladder
| W | D | L | % | P | |
| Port Adelaide | 14 | 0 | 3 | 136.4 | 56 |
| Brisbane | 14 | 0 | 3 | 124.9 | 56 |
| Richmond | 12 | 1 | 4 | 129.9 | 50 |
| Geelong | 12 | 0 | 5 | 136.8 | 48 |
| West Coast | 12 | 0 | 5 | 117.0 | 48 |
| St Kilda | 10 | 0 | 7 | 116.2 | 40 |
| Western Bulldogs | 10 | 0 | 7 | 106.7 | 40 |
| Collingwood | 9 | 1 | 7 | 109.5 | 38 |
| Melbourne | 9 | 0 | 8 | 107.8 | 36 |
| Greater Western Sydney | 8 | 0 | 9 | 95.6 | 32 |
| Carlton | 7 | 0 | 10 | 94.3 | 28 |
| Fremantle | 7 | 0 | 10 | 93.7 | 28 |
| Essendon | 6 | 1 | 10 | 79.2 | 26 |
| Gold Coast | 5 | 1 | 11 | 90.6 | 22 |
| Hawthorn | 5 | 0 | 12 | 84.1 | 20 |
| Sydney | 5 | 0 | 12 | 82.6 | 20 |
| North Melbourne | 3 | 0 | 14 | 71.2 | 12 |
| Adelaide | 3 | 0 | 14 | 64.4 | 12 |
Senior List
| Number | Player | Games | Goals | ||
| 1 | Steven May | 17 | 1 | ||
| 2 | Nathan Jones | 8 | 1 | ||
| 3 | Christian Salem | 16 | 2 | ||
| 4 | James Harmes | 13 | 2 | ||
| 5 | Christian Petracca | 17 | 15 | ||
| 6 | Luke Jackson | 6 | 3 | ||
| 7 | Jack Viney | 16 | 5 | ||
| 8 | Jake Lever | 17 | 0 | ||
| 9 | Charlie Spargo | 8 | 8 | ||
| 10 | Angus Brayshaw | 14 | 5 | ||
| 11 | Max Gawn | 14 | 1 | ||
| 12 | Toby Bedford | 2 | 0 | ||
| 13 | Clayton Oliver | 17 | 3 | ||
| 14 | Michael Hibberd | 14 | 1 | ||
| 15 | Ed Langdon | 17 | 2 | ||
| 16 | Kade Kolodjashnij | 0 | 0 | ||
| 18 | Jake Melksham | 17 | 15 | ||
| 19 | Mitch Hannan | 9 | 7 | ||
| 20 | Adam Tomlinson | 13 | 0 | ||
| 21 | Braydon Preuss | 2 | 0 | ||
| 22 | Aaron vandenBerg | 12 | 1 | ||
| 23 | James Jordon | 0 | 0 | ||
| 24 | Trent Rivers | 9 | 2 | ||
| 25 | Tom McDonald | 9 | 7 | ||
| 26 | Sam Weideman | 13 | 19 | ||
| 27 | Aaron Nietschke | 0 | 0 | ||
| 28 | Oscar McDonald | 7 | 0 | ||
| 29 | Jayden Hunt | 6 | 10 | ||
| 30 | Alex Neal-Bullen | 7 | 7 | ||
| 31 | Bayley Fritsch | 16 | 22 | ||
| 32 | Tom Sparrow | 5 | 2 | ||
| 33 | Oskar Baker | 3 | 2 | ||
| 34 | Marty Hore | 0 | 0 | ||
| 35 | Harrison Petty | 0 | 0 | ||
| 36 | Kysaiah Pickett | 14 | 7 | ||
| 39 | Neville Jetta | 6 | 0 | ||
| 42 | Josh Wagner | 2 | 0 | ||
| 44 | Joel Smith | 7 | 0 | ||
Rookie List
| Number | Player | Games | Goals | ||
| 37 | Kade Chandler | 0 | 0 | ||
| 38 | Mitch Brown | 5 | 2 | ||
| 40 | Corey Wagner | 0 | 0 | ||
| 41 | Jay Lockhart | 10 | 0 | ||
| 46 | Austin Bradtke | 0 | 0 | ||
| 48 | Kyle Dunkley | 0 | 0 | ||
Best and Fairest
| Player | Votes | ||||
| 1 | Christian Petracca | 385 | |||
| 2 | Steven May | 362 | |||
| 3 | Jack Viney | 311 | |||
| 4 | Ed Langdon | 296 | |||
| 5 | Clayton Oliver | 291 | |||
| 6 | Max Gawn | 234 | |||
| 7 | Christian Salem | 208 | |||
| 8 | Angus Brayshaw | 186 | |||
| 9 | Michael Hibberd | 179 | |||
| 10 | Sam Weideman | 172 | |||
| 11 | Jake Lever | 165 | |||
| 12 | Bayley Fritsch | 154 | |||
| 13 | Jake Melksham | 119 | |||
| 14 | Kysaiah Pickett | 102 | |||
| 15 | Trent Rivers | 94 | |||
| 16 | Adam Tomlinson | 92 | |||
| 17 | Aaron vandenBerg | 90 | |||
| 18 | Charlie Spargo | 80 | |||
| 19 | Luke Jackson | 79 | |||
| 20 | Mitch Hannan | 72 | |||
Other awards
Norm Smith Memorial Trophy - Steven May
Ron Barassi Jnr Trophy - Jack Viney
Ian Ridley Memorial Trophy - Neville Jetta
James McDonald Trophy - Steven May
Tribunal
| Round | Player | Charge | Sanction | ||
| Round 7 | Harley Bennell | Striking | $750 fine | ||
| Round 8 | Kysaiah Pickett | Dangerous tackle | $1000 fine | ||
| Round 9 | Clayton Oliver | Striking | No sanction | ||
| Round 10 | Alex Neal-Bullen | Dangerous tackle | 4 weeks | ||
| Round 10 | Tom Sparrow | Rough conduct | $1000 fine | ||
| Round 12 | Tom Sparrow | Rough conduct | $1500 fine | ||
| Round 12 | Charlie Spargo | Dangerous tackle | $1000 fine | ||
| Round 16 | Kysaiah Pickett | Rough conduct | $1500 fine | ||
Coaching Staff
Director of coaching - Alan Richardson
Backline coach - Troy Chaplin
Midfield coach - Justin Plapp
Stoppage and contest coach - Ben Mathews
Head of player development - Matthew Egan
Development coach - Max Rooke
Development coach/Casey coach - Sam Radford
Notes
The club did not release scores for below 20th in the Best and Fairest.
Videos