Saturday 14 August
Venue: East Melbourne
Attendance: "About 3000"
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| Essendon | 0.1 | 1.10 | 2.12 | 2.13 |
| Melbourne | 2.3 | 2.3 | 3.5 | 3.8 |
Melbourne won by 1 goal
Goalkickers: Murphy 1, Lynar 1, Baird 1
The Reds travelled down the road to East Melbourne and earned their second win in a row against a wasteful Essendon. They spurned a number of chances themselves, but a two goal gap set up in the first quarter was enough to deliver victory.
Melbourne kicked with a strong breeze in the first term, and despite being without O'Bern and Edwards they had the advantage of Essendon only being able to field 19 men for the first few minutes of the game. Despite this the home side were better until their missing player arrived, even scoring the first behind of the game. They continued to attack the visitors' goal from there, but the wind kept them at bay.
Melbourne finally started to wrest control of the game away late in the term. They got two behinds before Murphy scored from a place kick. When they had their chance with the wind Essendon were wasteful and registered five behinds in a row with only one major.
At the start of the third quarter there was no score for either side for 15 minutes as both sides desperately tried to stop the other from scoring. Essendon eventually scored the equalising goal, but immediately from the kick off a sequences of kicks found Lynar who put his side back in front.
Essendon attacked at the start of the last before the wind turned and began to favour Melbourne. A heavy rain followed, ruining any chance either side had of scoring more than a minor and allowing the Reds to hold on.
Best were McCrindle, Hallett and Murphy.
Notes
Some sources have Essendon's score as 0.1, 1.9, 2.11, 2.12
Media
The Argus - 16/08/1886
Sportsman - 18/08/1886
Weekly Times - 21/08/1886