Round 18, 2001
Geelong vs Melbourne
Saturday 4 August
Venue: MCG
Attendance: 31,074
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| Geelong | 5.3 | 9.6 | 10.7 | 15.10.100 |
| Melbourne | 4.1 | 7.3 | 12.6 | 16.7.103 |
Melbourne win by 3 points
Goalkickers: Russell Robertson 5, Brad Green 3, Jeff Farmer 2, Steven Febey 2, Cameron Bruce 1, Andrew Leoncelli 1, James McDonald 1, Peter Walsh 1
Brownlow Votes:
3 - Russell Robertson
2 - James McDonald
Best and Fairest
32 - Russell Robertson
28 - Steven Febey
26 - James McDonald
24 - Anthony McDonald
21 - David Schwarz
6 - Andrew Leoncelli
Milestones:
Nil
With their finals chances now all but extinguished Melbourne suddenly found themselves playing like the 2000 side again when it was too late. The Cats, on the other hand, were still struggling to jump into the eight. Their cause wasn't helped when Ronnie Burns did his hamstring in the first quarter.
Geelong took a lead into half-time, but a spirited second half was too good for them and with Russell Robertson adding 5.3 they seemed the Demons - season already over - wanted the four points more.
The Demons opened a four goal lead in the last quarter before the Cats hit back again. Future Demon Clint Bizzell thought he had won the game with a late goal at the 28 minute mark but it was barely touched through by James McDonald and Melbourne hung on to win in a rare Geelong home game at the MCG. The Cats had won every quarter of the match except the third, but their four goal turnaround in that term cost them dearly - the Demons had 16 inside 50's to six in the third.
Best were Robertson, McDonald and Steven Febey. Nathan Brown was replaced in the selected squad by Scott Thompson and Adem Yze was reported for charging David Clarke but cleared.
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Age - 05/08/2001
Sportal - 04/08/2001