With Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney set to enter the AFL in 2011 and 2012 respectively, Bailey said patience and careful planning meant the Demons could now enter the next decade with great confidence.
"We're about to enter a period in AFL football in a drafting situation that is unparalleled. We're about to go into this draft, which is compromised to a degree," he said when addressing the faithful at the club's best-and-fairest dinner on Wednesday night.
"The next two, possibly three drafts, they will be compromised - it is not an even playing field with two new teams coming in.
"We've positioned ourselves very well in what we've done in the last two years and what the intentions are this year as well."
On the back of the significant draft concessions awarded to Gold Coast last year and this week to GWS, Melbourne is now one of the best placed clubs to approach the next decade.
But this is only due to recent poor onfield seasons from 2007-09, which included three wooden spoons. The upside is that the Demons have the ability to bounce back strongly over the next 10 years.
In 2007, Melbourne snared Cale Morton (No.4) and Jack Grimes (No.14) with early draft picks and last year acquired highly-rated youngsters Jack Watts (No.1), Sam Blease (No.17) and James Strauss (No.19) inside the top 20.
This year, the Demons have picks No.1, No.2, No.11 and No.18.
And two of the country's best young talents - Tom Scully and Jack Trengove - are likely to be snapped up with the opening two picks.
Meanwhile, Bailey said Melbourne's early pre-season training return - before any other team - was already paying dividends among players. He highlighted defender Jared Rivers as one player already benefitting.
"I was talking to Jared Rivers and he casually mentioned: 'Bails, this is the first pre-season I've actually been able to do in three years where I can actually start on the first day of pre-season'," he said.
"That's an extraordinary thing for a player, who has been on the list for a number of years, to be thinking about and he did it with a smile on his face.
"He's been through two years of real struggle with his injuries."
