Saturday 4 August - East Melbourne
Crowd: 6000-7000
Melbourne 2.8
Essendon 4.11 (half time 0.2-4.7)
Essendon win by 2 goals
Goalkickers: Carr 1, Plant 1
After three wins in a row Melbourne were finally brought back down to earth on their short trip to the East Melbourne Cricket Ground. Despite an improved season it was their third loss of 1883 to Essendon.
The home side benefited from winning the toss and kicking a strong wind in the first half, and they opened up a big gap at half time which left Melbourne all the work to do in the second period. The score might have been worse than 4-0 if it weren't for strong defensive play by Booth and Tuckfield. Melbourne's defence were at fault for the second goal, allowing an innocuous kicked to get through them and score.
Melbourne almost scored from their first chance through McIntyre but he missed, and despite good work from Conway and Plant amongst the visiting followers they conceded two more before half time - including one freak snap over the head.
The character of the match shifted in the second half when Melbourne had their chance with the wind, and they almost scored first but hit the post. As the wind moderated Melbourne's advantage lessened, but they rallied and got goals from a scrimmage through Carr and a mark from Plant. That was as good as it got and even though all the goals were kicked with the wind, when time was called they had lost.
Best were Plant, Booth and Jones.
Selected team
Aitken, Booth, Bower, Carr, Conway, Cunningham, Jones, Mackenzie, McIntyre, Morris, Murphy, Nicolson, Patterson, Plant, Rickards, Rush, Sloman, Stiffe, Strachan, Thewlis, Tuckfield.
Notes
Some sources have Patterson scoring not Carr.
Media
Argus - 04/08/1883
Argus - 06/08/1883
Age - 06/08/1883
Sportsman - 08/08/1883
Leader - 11/08/1883
Australasian - 11/08/1883