MELBOURNE has morphed from a "joke financially" to a sustainable club set up for prolonged success, outgoing chief executive Peter Jackson says.

Jackson, who will be replaced by former Collingwood CEO Gary Pert in his post as of Wednesday, reflected on his time with the club at Monday night's best and fairest count at Crown Casino. 

He recalled first receiving the phone call from then AFL chief Andrew Demetriou in May 2013, imploring him to take the position to help rebuild a battered club. 

Jackson said he was proud to see how far the club had come after being in a dark spot five years ago. 

"You cannot be a good football club if you don't have a good balance sheet and this club has gone from being a joke financially to now being sustainable," Jackson said. 

"We are now relevant and respected again and I think on a path to seeing this club being great again which will come from sustained on-field success, supported by strong off-field management and professionalism."

Jackson listed a number of things he was pleased to have overseen during his tenure at Melbourne, including the club's role in driving the Anzac Day eve match against Richmond, the new branding of Melbourne and the club's pioneering of women's football alongside the Western Bulldogs.

Reducing debt and seeing consistent profits in the last few years were other milestones Jackson listed, as well as the club's decision to exit gaming in 2018.

Jackson said he had not been taken aback by the leap the club had made on-field in 2018, pointing to the confidence he, the executive and the board had in the coaching staff and administration to get the job done. 

"Some would be surprised with the excitement because of the long-standing narrative that seems to surround the Melbourne Football club, which people chose to reinforce on those occasions that they could," Jackson said. 

"But many overlooked the very good progress we were making, because in some minds the narrative is a lot more fun than the reality."

Jackson said the inevitable speed humps that popped up along the way was par for the course, with the club coming in for tough criticism after it failed to make the finals after a last round capitulation in 2017. 

"The fact of the matter was that we had a very young and talented team still learning and we made some mistakes along the way which cost us some games," Jackson said.

"I liken it to seeing your child grow up and being a parent and seeing your kid grow up and develop, learn and mature and turn into something special.

"And a distant relative comes in after seven or eight years and says, 'Gee, haven't they grown?'. That's the Melbourne Football Club. We've seen it grow and develop over the last five years, but a lot of people didn't see it until we knocked off Geelong and Hawthorn."

"We knew what was coming and personally I was very confident about the ability, the competitiveness and mental toughness that would show through and it did over those last five games.

"Five games, 10 hours of football and one hour was not good enough [against West Coast in the preliminary final] and it cost us a spot in the Grand Final. 

"That's OK, it's a tough game, but it shows for you members and supporters what you can look forward to in the future."