Saturday 26 June - Melbourne
Melbourne 3
East Melbourne 1 (half time 3-1)
Melbourne win by 2 goals
Goalkickers: Williams 1, Austin Loughnan 1, Bob Sillett 1
What should have been an easy win for a side who were 5-1 for the season nearly went wrong for Melbourne when they only had 17 players at the kick-off against East's 20. The deficit helped level the playing field and provide a much better game than it would likely otherwise have been.
The visitors also won the toss and had the use of a stiff breeze, so an upset was on the cards. Melbourne responded by stacking their defence and counter-attacking by pushing the ball up the ground using their strong followers. Eventually Williams opened the scoring by kicking a goal from 50 metres out.
This goal weakened East Melbourne's resistance and Austin Loughnan got the second five minutes later and Sillett a third soon after. The Easterners got a goal back before half time, and the score remained the same at full-time due to Melbourne missing a substantial number of chances in the second half while dominating the general play.
Best was Charles Carr, Ben Goldsmith and Sampson.
Media
Australasian - 03/07/1875