2016 was another year of improvement for the Melbourne Football Club as they continued their gradual rise up the ladder.
The Demons won ten games and were in contention to feature in September for the first time in a decade until the final two rounds of the season, ultimately finishing tenth.
It was their best single season result since 2006, when the club last played finals.
Of the 2017 playing squad, only current co-captain Nathan Jones remains from the side that lost to Fremantle by 28 points in the first semi-final at Domain Stadium.
Their fall from grace since then has been well documented.
After Neale Daniher resigned as coach midway through the 2007 season, in which they eventually finished third-last with five wins, then-Port Adelaide assistant coach Dean Bailey was appointed to mastermind their rebuild.
His first two seasons brought little success and thus as many bottom-placed finishes. The poor results across those two years allowed the club to draft the likes of Jack Watts, Jack Trengove and Tom Scully, among others.
The club appeared to be tracking well in 2011 until they suffered a humiliating 186-point loss to the Geelong Cats at Kardinia Park in Round 19.
Bailey was sacked after that defeat and then-Collingwood assistant coach Mark Neeld was appointed to lead what was essentially another rebuild, famously stating that he wanted his side “to be the hardest to play against” upon his appointment.
The club went backwards under Neeld and by mid-2013 he was given his marching orders, having won just five of 33 matches.
The Dees pursued premiership coach Paul Roos, and after weeks of denials, he would be appointed for two years, with an option for a third year, in September 2013.
The club proposed that Roos would coach the side for a fixed term, after which a fully-trained senior assistant coach would take over.
Twelve months after taking over as coach, Roos finally found his second-hand man in Simon Goodwin.
While progress was slow in Roos’ first year as coach, finishing 17th with four wins, after Goodwin arrived, the on-field results improved, with some significant wins along the way.
In 2015, the club finished 13th with seven wins, with perennial heavyweights Geelong and Collingwood among their victims.
Their 29-point win over triple-reigning premiers Hawthorn last year stood out as their most significant victory in recent history.
However inconsistency has remained a huge problem, with the Demons losing a number of matches they should have won, such as those against Essendon, St Kilda (twice) and Carlton.
Additionally, the club suffered a 111-point defeat to the Geelong Cats in their final match of the season, six days after their finals hopes ended with the aforementioned loss to the Blues.
Ultimately, it was these defeats, among others, which impeded their progress in 2016. Had the Demons not underestimated their opposition in some matches, they could so easily have played in September.
But despite their poor finish to last season, expectations are high, as Simon Goodwin prepares for his first season as head coach.
Already he has stamped his own authority on the club, appointing 70-gamer Jack Viney as co-captain alongside the experienced Nathan Jones, who has been through more than any other player at the club in the past decade.
The club will also enter the new season on the back of another productive off-season, in which it landed some big fish in four-time premiership Hawk Jordan Lewis and ex-Bomber Michael Hibberd.
And fans will finally get to see Jake Melksham in action after he, along with 33 other past and present Essendon players, was suspended for the entire 2016 season as a result of the club’s supplements controversy.
There will also be a lot expected from two-time leading goalkicker Jesse Hogan, after he backed up his stunning 2015 season with 41 majors in 2016.
And the Dees have already made an impressive start to 2017, upsetting reigning premiers the Western Bulldogs by six points in their first pre-season match.
Lewis made an immediate impact, being among the side’s best players with 28 disposals, while Viney, Hogan and Christian Salem also impressed.
Melnbourne’s remaining two pre-season matches will give Goodwin the chance to tinker with his potential Round 1 side which will attempt to break a decade-long hoodoo against the Saints. The last time the Dees tasted victory against them, was also their most recent win in a finals match, back in 2006.
Both the Saints and Dees are touted for further improvement in 2017, having finished ninth and tenth last season after having been two of the worst-performed Victorian sides in both 2013 and 2014.
This is what will make their first of two meetings this season very intriguing.
And so, after years of steady improvement, the future is finally starting to look bright for the Melbourne Football Club.
Whether the club has learnt from the frustrating defeats which impeded their progress last year, and whether their new draftees and recruits can make an instant impact, remains to be seen.
A berth in September, if earned this season, will go down as the ultimate reward for the club given all that they have endured in the past decade.
And who knows what they might achieve going forward.
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