Saturday 10 July - Albert Park
Crowd - 3000
Albert Park 0
Melbourne 2 (half time 0-2)
Melbourne win by 2 goals
Goalkickers: Bob Sillett 1, Longden 1
The visitors knew they would be missing as many as five of their first choice players through injury, but were unable to replace all of them in time and started the game two players short.
The game was delayed when Albert Park objected to the presence of Sergeant, who had previously played with University. Melbourne contended that because University had merged with St Kilda during the year he was a free agent and the home side relented and allowed him to play as one of the substitutes. The Reds also had to field Searcy, a member of the club as a replacement yet could still only muster 18.
To make things worse they lost the toss and had to kick into the sun, but made light of their disadvantage in the early minutes. They were more disciplined and shortly after kick-off opened the scoring through Longden. After an evenly contested period of the game Sillett got the second goal shortly before half time.
The home side put in an improved performance later in the game, but the closest they came to scoring was a disallowed goal shortly before half time..
Best were Hammill, Longden and Kneen.
Selected side
Bennie, Bennie, Booth, Carr, Dowling, Forrester (c), Freeman, Hammill, Jennings, Johnson, Kneen, Longden, Loughnan, Marshall, Sampson, Sergeant, Sillett, Scott, Watson, Williams. Emergency T. Horan.
Notes
Some sources say Sillett scored first and Longden second.
Media
Argus - 10/07/1875
Argus - 13/07/1875
Australasian - 17/07/1875