Melbourne played 14 games at the MCG, 10 of which were home games. They also played a home match at TIO Stadium in Darwin against Port Adelaide in Round 9. It was Dean Bailey's third year as senior coach. James McDonald continued as the club's captain until retiring at the end of the year.

After a terrible start to the season getting thrashed to Hawthorn by 56 points, Melbourne began to lift their work-rate in games and indicate that they were beginning to successfully maneuver Dean Bailey's coaching-style. They began to play a fast and exciting brand of football with heavy use of the corridor and playing-on in subsequent weeks. Furthermore, unlike the 3 previous seasons, Melbourne began to cut heavy defects back to smaller deficits by preventing their opponents from scoring. This was due to Melbourne constantly gained running momentum when moving the ball outside of their defensive 50.

Melbourne's season was headlined by being constantly competitive on a weekly basis only losing one more time for the season by over 50 points to Geelong in Round 10. Melbourne was shown strong signs of competitiveness against the sides that eventually finished in the top 8 that year. This included a 4-point loss to the Western Bulldogs in Round 7, an 11-point loss to Fremantle at Subiaco in Round 16, a 1-point loss & a draw to the eventual premiers that year Collingwood in Rounds 2 & 12 respectively and a 73-point win to Sydney in Round 17.

In addition to Melbourne's promising season allowing them to achieve 8 wins and a draw with a percentage of 94.52%, it also allowed James Frawley and Mark Jamar to earn position in the 2010 All-Australian team in the back line and the interchange bench respectively.

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