Ansett Australia Cup 2000 Match 3
Geelong vs Melbourne
Monday 14 February
Venue: Waverley
Attendance: 4952
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| Geelong | 6.4 | 10.7 | 12.7 | 17.12.114 |
| Melbourne | 6.2 | 8.7 | 10.14 | 11.16.82 |
Geelong win by 32 points
Goalkickers: David Schwarz 4, Jeff Farmer 3, Cameron Bruce 1, Stephen Powell 1, Matthew Febey 1, Ben Beams 1
The match was originally scheduled to be played at 4.30pm on Sunday 13th at Kardinia Park, but the ground was flooded by a burst underground pipe. Melbourne players voted not to take part in the match despite an attempt to rope off the affected areas of the ground.
The Demons offered to play the match the next day but the quality of the surface could not be guaranteed, and after AFL Operations Manager Ian Collins inspected the surface the match was moved to Waverley Park on a Monday night. He had previously threatened that the Demons could be expelled from the competition for not playing. Geelong's players had voted to go on despite 10 square meters of the wing being unplayable, while Melbourne declined to carry on. Approximately 5000 people had been in attendance before the original match was called off.
A balmy Monday night saw a tiny crowd travel to Waverley to see the match. David Schwarz booted four in the opening term and the Demons were hot, but Geelong hit back in the second term and kicked away to a fairly comfortable victory in the final term. After being four goals down for most of the night the Demons struck back late in the third quarter to get within five points but couldn't go with their opponents when the game went up a gear in the final term. It was Mark Thompson's first competitive victory as Cats coach.
After his red hot start Schwarz added just four more behinds over the final three quarters, but he racked up seven marks and 18 possessions for the game.
The Demons still qualified for the semi final against Essendon by virtue of their superior percentage. They could have afforded to lose by up to ten goals and still qualify.
Best were Schwarz, Farmer and McDonald. Matthew Collins was reported for wrestling Brad Sholl in the second quarter, he was fined $1200.
Squad
Beams, Bruce, Chisholm, Collins, Cook, Farmer, M. Febey, S. Febey, Godfrey, Green, Grgic, Lamb, Leoncelli, A. McDonald, Neitz, Nicholson, Powell, Rigoni, Robertson, Schwarz, Simmonds, Speers, Walsh, Wheatley, White, Williams, Woewodin, Yze
Lists
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Age - 13/02/2000
Age - 14/02/2000
Age - 15/02/2000