For the 2021 AFLW season see 2021 AFLW season
Coach: Simon Goodwin
Captain: Max Gawn
Finishing Position: 1st (Premiers)
Best and Fairest: Clayton Oliver
Leading Goalkicker: Bayley Fritsch 59
Best Young Player: Kysaiah Pickett
Major Sponsor: Zurich/Jaguar
Financial result: $2,628,228
Members: 53,706
| Ladder | Playing List | Best and Fairest | Tribunal | Drafts and Trading | |
The AFL introduced new rules intended to increase scoring, including reducing the interchange cap to 75 and forcing players to be stationary when standing the mark, however scoring continued to drop, going below 80 points per team, per game for the first time since the 1960s.
Melbourne won their first three matches for the first time since 2005, first four for the first time since 1994, and first six for the first time since 1965. They finished the regular season with 17 wins and a draw, securing their first minor premiership since 1964 when Max Gawn kicked a goal after the siren to win the Round 23 game against Geelong. Melbourne then won its three finals comfortably, including a record 74 point win over Western Bulldogs in the Grand Final to record their 13th premiership, and first since 1964.
Due to the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic, Round 11 was played in front of an empty stadium at Docklands, Round 12 was moved from the scheduled venue of Traeger Park to Sydney Showgrounds, and Round 13 was moved from the MCG to SCG. The loss of the Alice Springs and Queens Birthday games cost Melbourne approximately $1.5 million. Revenue from two further home games were lost due to scheduling changes due to further COVID outbreaks. The Round 18 game against Hawthorn was played with no crowd, moved from an originally scheduled 4.35pm start time to a night game.
The following week, a game scheduled against Gold Coast at Marrara was swapped with a match against Western Bulldogs, to again be played in front of no crowd at the MCG. The Gold Coast game was moved to Carrara on Saturday 31 July, before last-minute COVID restrictions in Queensland required the game to be relocated to the MCG the next day.
Despite several home games being played in front of empty stadiums due to COVID restrictions, including multiple lockdowns in Victoria, the club membership still broke the record set in 2019.
Practice matches
| Opposition | Result | Score | |||
| Richmond | WIN | 93-82 | |||
AAMI Community Series
| Opposition | Result | Score | |||
| Western Bulldogs | LOSS | 67-106 | |||
Premiership Season
| Round | Opposition | Result | Score | ||
| 1 | Fremantle | WIN | 80-58 | ||
| 2 | St Kilda | WIN | 91-73 | ||
| 3 | Greater Western Sydney | WIN | 102-68 | ||
| 4 | Geelong | WIN | 85-60 | ||
| 5 | Hawthorn | WIN | 104-54 | ||
| 6 | Richmond | WIN | 82-48 | ||
| 7 | North Melbourne | WIN | 103-73 | ||
| 8 | Sydney | WIN | 67-58 | ||
| 9 | Carlton | WIN | 94-68 | ||
| 10 | Adelaide | LOSE | 95-96 | ||
| 11 | Western Bulldogs | WIN | 87-59 | ||
| 12 | Brisbane Lions | WIN | 97-75 | ||
| 13 | Collingwood | LOSS | 63-80 | ||
| 14 | BYE | ||||
| 15 | Essendon | WIN | 68-57 | ||
| 16 | Greater Western Sydney | LOSS | 55-64 | ||
| 17 | Port Adelaide | WIN | 86-55 | ||
| 18 | Hawthorn | DRAW | 79-79 | ||
| 19 | Western Bulldogs | LOSS | 65-85 | ||
| 20 | Gold Coast | WIN | 128-30 | ||
| 21 | West Coast | WIN | 72-63 | ||
| 22 | Adelaide | WIN | 104-63 | ||
| 23 | Geelong | WIN | 81-77 | ||
| QF | Brisbane | WIN | 93-60 | ||
| PF | Geelong | WIN | 125-42 | ||
| GF | Western Bulldogs | WIN | 140-66 | ||
Ladder
| W | D | L | % | P | |
| Melbourne | 17 | 1 | 4 | 130.8 | 70 |
| Port Adelaide | 17 | 0 | 5 | 126.3 | 68 |
| Geelong | 16 | 0 | 6 | 126.7 | 64 |
| Brisbane | 15 | 0 | 7 | 133.3 | 60 |
| Western Bulldogs | 15 | 0 | 7 | 132.8 | 60 |
| Sydney | 15 | 0 | 7 | 119.9 | 60 |
| Greater Western Sydney | 11 | 1 | 10 | 99.7 | 46 |
| Essendon | 11 | 0 | 11 | 109.1 | 44 |
| West Coast | 10 | 0 | 12 | 93.2 | 40 |
| St Kilda | 10 | 0 | 12 | 91.5 | 40 |
| Fremantle | 10 | 0 | 12 | 86.5 | 40 |
| Richmond | 9 | 1 | 12 | 97.9 | 38 |
| Carlton | 8 | 0 | 14 | 88.5 | 32 |
| Hawthorn | 7 | 2 | 13 | 85.2 | 32 |
| Adelaide | 7 | 0 | 15 | 82.0 | 28 |
| Gold Coast | 7 | 0 | 15 | 76.8 | 28 |
| Collingwood | 6 | 0 | 16 | 85.6 | 24 |
| North Melbourne | 4 | 1 | 17 | 70.3 | 18 |
Senior list
| Number | Player | Games | Goals | ||
| 1 | Steven May | 23 | 0 | ||
| 2 | Nathan Jones | 8 | 2 | ||
| 3 | Christian Salem | 24 | 3 | ||
| 4 | James Harmes | 18 | 7 | ||
| 5 | Christian Petracca | 25 | 29 | ||
| 6 | Luke Jackson | 24 | 16 | ||
| 7 | Jack Viney | 15 | 4 | ||
| 8 | Jake Lever | 25 | 0 | ||
| 9 | Charlie Spargo | 25 | 18 | ||
| 10 | Angus Brayshaw | 25 | 3 | ||
| 11 | Max Gawn | 25 | 16 | ||
| 12 | Toby Bedford | 0 | 0 | ||
| 13 | Clayton Oliver | 25 | 11 | ||
| 14 | Michael Hibberd | 17 | 0 | ||
| 15 | Ed Langdon | 24 | 13 | ||
| 16 | Bailey Laurie | 0 | 0 | ||
| 17 | Jake Bowey | 7 | 0 | ||
| 18 | Jake Melksham | 12 | 8 | ||
| 19 | Fraser Rosman | 0 | 0 | ||
| 20 | Adam Tomlinson | 7 | 0 | ||
| 21 | Marty Hore | 0 | 0 | ||
| 22 | Aaron vandenBerg | 4 | 0 | ||
| 24 | Trent Rivers | 25 | 1 | ||
| 25 | Tom McDonald | 23 | 33 | ||
| 26 | Sam Weideman | 5 | 3 | ||
| 29 | Jayden Hunt | 20 | 2 | ||
| 30 | Alex Neal-Bullen | 25 | 15 | ||
| 31 | Bayley Fritsch | 24 | 59 | ||
| 32 | Tom Sparrow | 21 | 7 | ||
| 33 | Oskar Baker | 3 | 0 | ||
| 35 | Harrison Petty | 19 | 0 | ||
| 36 | Kysaiah Pickett | 25 | 40 | ||
| 39 | Neville Jetta | 5 | 0 | ||
| 41 | Jay Lockhart | 0 | 0 | ||
| 44 | Joel Smith | 3 | 0 | ||
| 46 | Austin Bradtke | 0 | 0 | ||
| 50 | Ben Brown | 13 | 25 | ||
Rookie list
| Number | Player | Games | Goals | ||
| 23 | James Jordon | 25 | 6 | ||
| 27 | Aaron Nietschke | 0 | 0 | ||
| 28 | Majak Daw | 0 | 0 | ||
| 34 | Deakyn Smith | 0 | 0 | ||
| 37 | Kade Chandler | 5 | 0 | ||
| 38 | Mitch Brown | 1 | 2 | ||
| 40 | Kye Declase | 0 | 0 | ||
| 42 | Daniel Turner | 0 | 0 | ||
Best and Fairest
| Player | Votes | ||||
| 1st | Clayton Oliver | 670 | |||
| 2nd | Christian Petracca | 644 | |||
| 3rd | Max Gawn | 542 | |||
| 4th | Christian Salem | 522 | |||
| 5th | Jake Lever | 498 | |||
| 6th | Ed Langdon | 487 | |||
| 7th | Steven May | 431 | |||
| 8th | Alex Neal-Bullen | 421 | |||
| 9th | Tom McDonald | 408 | |||
| 9th | Kysaiah Pickett | 408 | |||
| 11th | Bayley Fritsch | 397 | |||
| 12th | Luke Jackson | 368 | |||
| 13th | Charlie Spargo | 334 | |||
| 14th | Angus Brayshaw | 332 | |||
| 15th | Trent Rivers | 310 | |||
| 16th | Jack Viney | 303 | |||
| 17th | Harrison Petty | 293 | |||
| 18th | James Jordon | 277 | |||
| 19th | James Harmes | 264 | |||
| 20th | Jayden Hunt | 242 | |||
Other awards
Best VFL player - Toby Bedford
Club Ambassador Award - Ben Brown and Neville Jetta
Club Values Player - Steven May
Leadership Award - Max Gawn
Coaches Award - Alex Neal-Bullen
Tribunal
| Round | Player | Charge | Sanction | ||
| Round 3 | Clayton Oliver | Melee | $1000 | ||
| Round 3 | Jack Viney | Melee | $1000 | ||
| Round 3 | Charlie Spargo | Striking | $1000 | ||
| Round 4 | Neville Jetta | Dangerous tackle | $2000 | ||
| Round 7 | Bayley Fritsch | Striking | Cleared | ||
| Round 8 | Steven May | Striking | $2000 fine | ||
| Round 9 | Tom McDonald | Kneeing | $2000 fine | ||
| Round 12 | Tom Sparrow | Rough conduct | $2000 fine | ||
| Round 20 | Jack Viney | Serious misconduct | 2 weeks | ||
Coaching Staff
General Manager of Football Performance - Alan Richardson
Backline coach - Troy Chaplin
Midfield coach - Adem Yze
Forward coach - Greg Stafford
Head of Development - Mark Williams
Casey Demons coach - Mark Corrigan