Round 17, 2000
North Melbourne vs Melbourne
Saturday, 1 July
Venue: Docklands
Attendance: 30,423
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| North Melbourne | 0.5 | 11.12 | 13.15 | 14.19.103 |
| Melbourne | 3.5 | 5.8 | 10.12 | 14.18.102 |
North Melbourne win by 1 point
Goalkickers: Brad Green 3, Shane Woewodin 3, Steven Pitt 2, Russell Robertson 2, Cameron Bruce 1, Jeff Farmer 1, Stephen Powell 1, Jeff White 1
Brownlow Votes:
2 - Shane Woewodin
Best and Fairest
31 - Guy Rigoni
27 - Shane Woewodin
25.5 - Alistair Nicholson
25 - Matthew Whelan
12 - Stephen Powell
Milestones:
Nil
Having been the victims of a blockbusting comeback against Richmond the week before before hanging on to win Melbourne found the boot on the other foot at Colonial Stadium a week later. They had beaten the Kangaroos earlier in the year, but that day North had been without several of their best players.
Melbourne led by thirteen points at the 12-minute mark of the second quarter, despite a quarter time spray from Denis Pagan where he was so disgusted that he walked off and left Wayne Carey to finish the address - but a blitz of 11.7 - including nine goals in time-on of a 37 minute quarter - gave the Kangaroos a near unassailable lead at half time. Before their run of goals they had been sitting on 1.10 for the match. They should have gone on to win easily, but for the fifth time that year they blew a 40 point half-time lead.
A five goal to two third quarter made the margin more respectable before the Demons kicked the first three goals of the term to drag themselves to within a straight kick. After Wayne Carey kicked his fifth of the day, Brad Green got his third to get them back to within six points but late misses by Woewodin and Yze, and a desperate smother by Shane Clayton on a Brent Grgic kick with seconds left delivered the Roos victory despite having kicked just three goals in three quarters excepting their 2nd term blitz.
Yze, Rigoni (with a career high 37 disposals) and James McDonald joined Woewodin amongst the best.
Jeff Farmer was booked for striking David King during the third quarter but despite umpires evidence that he had struck the North player six times he was let off on a technicality regarding the way the report was made. The emergency umpire had waited until three-quarter time to tell Farmer that he was reporting him, and the Demons' player advocate suggested that a conversation with the goal umpire had influenced the decision.
Steven Febey played despite injury concerns, but could not play the game out on his bad knee and was carried from the ground late in the first quarter. Andrew Leoncelli also suffered a bruised hip.
Lists
One point games
Tribunal
Media
Herald Sun - 02/07/2000
Age - 02/07/2000
Age - 02/07/2000
Age - 06/07/2000