The AFL cops plenty of flak about its supposed barracking for expansion clubs. I'm not sure that's the case in 2026, though. Indeed, I reckon the league might be cheering on Melbourne just as vociferously as the Demon faithful do these days.
Why? Because at a time when the game's governing body seems to keep putting its public offside and the focus is so often on the negatives, a new-look Melbourne under debutant coach Steven King is rapidly becoming an on-field elixir for the game's ills. Not to mention just a bloody great footy story.
You want rags to riches? Tick. Melbourne finished 14th last year with just seven wins. They've already won that many games in 2026 and at 7-3 are equal third on points. Not only that, the list of scalps is seriously impressive. St Kilda. Gold Coast. Brisbane. Now Hawthorn.
You want positive, attacking football? Tick. The Demons last year were just 10th for points scored, now they're fourth. In 2025, they ranked a lowly 12th for points from the defensive half. Now they're fourth.
You want exciting youngsters backing in their talents rather than appearing yoked to a less dynamic, more rigid structure? Big tick. Melbourne's less-experienced types are growing before our eyes, the improvement seemingly on a weekly basis.
In Saturday's terrific win over another top contender in Hawthorn, it was Harvey Langford, Bailey Laurie, Matthew Jefferson, and Blake Howes who were particularly impressive. Other weeks it's been the likes of Caleb Windsor or Xavier Lindsay, both out injured this time.
You want career resurrections? Tick. Tom Sparrow, treading water seemingly ever since being part of that 2021 premiership, now a damaging midfielder thriving on extra responsibility after some big-name departures.
Or former St Kilda skipper Jack Steele, picked up for just a future third-round draft selection and giving Melbourne's youngsters both valuable leadership and a personal example of career reinvention.
You want a first-year senior coach taking the footy world by storm? Massive tick in King. Sure, he'd been about the assistant coaching ranks for a long time, but everyone knows being the senior man is a totally different thing.
But right from his first public utterances in the red and the blue, the former Geelong and St Kilda ruckman has looked not just comfortable, but assured both in the box and behind a microphone. He cajoles better from his charges rather than goads them to a response, and the results have been almost instantaneous.
It's not just the wins, either. King has hit the right buttons virtually every time he's pushed them thus far, like moving Ed Langdon to half-back, like deploying former Brisbane fringe player Harry Sharp as a tireless midfield runner creeping forward, and on Saturday, Harry Petty as a game-shaping key forward.
And beyond even the strategies and the mechanics, it's just, well, to quote the iconic Australian movie "The Castle", "the vibe". Here is a side having fun out there, playing the game as it's meant to be played, with a lightness and flair. And significantly, too, with more evenness.
Consider the fact (and already, you do have to remind yourself) that Melbourne between the end of last season and the start of this one divested itself of a collective six best and fairest gongs and nine All-Australian selections when Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver, and Steven May departed.
Coming on the heels of the replacement of premiership coach Simon Goodwin last year, this all but screamed "end of an era". Of course, the pre-season predictions about Melbourne were then suitably unambitious.
Perhaps, though, that didn't take into account the liberating effect the Demons' "franchise" type players leaving would have on lesser lights previously more contained, perpetually living in the shadows of stars whose various trials and tribulations were not just a physical but psychological drain.
This is a team which looks a lot happier. And that vibe is infectious on either side of the fence. The Melbourne hordes are becoming louder, more boisterous. And there's certainly more of them these days.
Look at the crowds the Dees are pulling. No jokes about "off to the snow" in 2026. The Hawthorn clash was already the third this season in which Melbourne has pulled more than 67,000.
The caveat? Yes, yes, we know, it's not even the halfway point of the season yet. Yes, we know opponents like Hawthorn, which Melbourne plays again in Launceston in just six weeks, are going to do a whole lot of homework on just how to put this upstart "flavour of the month" back in its box.
But already King and co. have in under three months given us more entertainment, more energy, more excitement than some rivals manage over several years. It's great to watch, so are Melbourne, and I'm sure I'm not the only one hoping they deliver a lot more of it yet.
You can read more of Rohan Connolly's work at FOOTYOLOGY.
