2012 Melbourne Football Club season
| 2012 season | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| President |
Jim Stynes (to 2 February) Don McLardy (from 3 February) |
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| Coach |
Mark Neeld (1st season) |
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| Captain(s) |
Jack Grimes (1st season) Jack Trengove (1st season) |
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| Home ground |
MCG (100,018 capacity) |
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| Pre-season | 14th | ||
| AFL season | 16th | ||
| Finals series | DNQ | ||
| Best and fairest | Nathan Jones | ||
| Leading goalkicker |
Mitch Clark (29 goals) |
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| Highest home attendance | 64,250 (round 11 vs. Collingwood) |
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| Lowest home attendance | 6,714 (round 17 vs. Port Adelaide) |
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| Average home attendance | 28,726 | ||
| Club membership | 35,345 (  1,592 / 4.31%)
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The 2012 Melbourne Football Club season was the club's 113th year in the VFL/AFL since it began in 1897.
After a horrid ending to 2011 which saw coach Dean Bailey sacked after a near-record 186-point loss to Geelong in Round 19, former Collingwood midfield assistant coach Mark Neeld was appointed as head coach for 2012 and vowed that he would make Melbourne 'the hardest team to play against in the AFL'. in February 2012, Neeld gave the football club's leadership group a major overhaul by replacing Brad Green as the club's captain with Jack Grimes and Jack Trengove, both of whom are young midfielders. On 2 February, Don McLardy was elected the club's new president, replacing Jim Stynes who was continuing his fight against cancer. Melbourne hosted nine of its eleven games at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, as well as one game against Fremantle at Etihad Stadium in Round 16 and one sold home-game against Port Adelaide at TIO Stadium in Round 17.
The Melbourne Football Club and its supporters will remember 2012 as being one of the worst seasons in the club's 154-year history. Headlined by the death of club-legend Jim Stynes just before the beginning of the season proper, Melbourne would produce one of its most disastrous seasons as they struggled to adapt to the fitness requirements of Mark Neeld's highly contested game plan implemented. The Demons would win only four games and finish the year in 16th place only above the two expansion teams, Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney, on the ladder. After losing their first nine games of the season, Melbourne would upset second-placed Essendon, who had only lost one game at that stage of the season by a point in Round 10, by six points; their only other wins for the year would come against Greater Western Sydney (twice) and Gold Coast.
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