Saturday May 14 - Melbourne Ground
Crowd: 6000-8000
Melbourne 2.5
Essendon 5.14 (half time 2.1 - 2.10)
Essendon win by 3 goals
Goalkickers: G. Aitken 2
After a horrid 1882, the home side debuted several new players in their first engagement of 1883 - presenting what amounted to half a new side.
Melbourne had the first shot on goal for the season, but Stiffe tried to get closer to the goal after a mark and only managed a point. With D. Aitken, playing against his old side for the first time, propelling the ball forward for Essendon they scored the first goal and had a period of dominance over the next few minutes.
Stiffe missed another chance, but after good play by Tindall and Duckett got the ball forward they broke through after George Aitken caught an Essendon player running with the ball and put it through the goals. He got a second goal soon after, but Essendon equalised before half time.
With the number of scoring shots they'd had, Essendon always threatened to break away from Melbourne and they did in the second half. Two early goals gave them the advantage before Stiffe managed to drag one back from a mark directly in front of goal. Essendon got a fifth to make the tie safe, and with the ball spending much of its time out of bounds there wasn't long enough for Melbourne to mount a comeback.
Best were Booth, Collins and McKenzie.
Notes
Some sources have the HT scores as 2.2-2.9 and the FT score as 2.5-5.13