Round 3, 1984
Melbourne vs Hawthorn
Saturday 14 April
Venue: MCG
Attendance: 25,557
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| Melbourne | 3.2 | 7.6 | 11.11 | 20.12.132 |
| Hawthorn | 6.6 | 12.8 | 14.13 | 20.18.138 |
Hawthorn win by 6 points
Goalkickers: Kelvin Templeton 8, Peter Tossol 4, Robert Flower 2, Gerard Healy 2, Adrian Battiston 1, Alan Johnson 1, Michael Reynolds 1, Xavier Tanner 1
Milestones:
Nil
The first half saw Hawthorn doing just what they had to do, and Melbourne plodding along behind them. Nobody batted an eyelid when the margin hit 32 points at half time - in fact most expected the Hawks to go on to a massive victory.
4.5 to 2.5 in the third term made it a little more respectable for Melbourne, but they were still well behind going into the last term. As was so often the case Robert Flower proved the inspiration, he kicked two goals - including one which Garrie Hutchinson writing in The Age described as "one of the greatest goals ever kicked on the sacred turf". He described it like this,
"Flower gathered the ball in the centre of the ground and started running towards the Southern stand end. He bounces the ball, he dodges one, two heaving opponents, he bounces the ball again and again, he's past centre half-forward, he's running straight at the goals, he sells a dummy, a Hawk gets a solid shephard and flies through the air, Flower bounces the ball again, the crowd has gone bananas, he's near the goal square, he sinks the slipper, through it goes, pandemonium breaks out. No-one had ever seen anything like it. Even Hawthorn seemed affected by the splendour of the run and stopped for five minutes".
His second drew the Demons to within a point, and then Kelvin Templeton booted one to put Melbourne in front and cause commotion. Both sides then traded goals for the rest of the quarter, including Templeton's 8th, but the Hawks pulled ahead and despite a Peter Tossol consolation goal on the siren the more experienced side had won.
Ron Barassi said "We lost with honour today, we never gave up, we got out of a big hole. It was like the Demon spirit of old".
Best were Healy, Moore and Templeton. Icke suffered an injury to his eyes.
Video
Reserves
Melbourne 19.15.129 d. Hawthorn 16.15.111
Goals - Cordner 6, Holden 3, Withers 3, Healy 3, Sutcliffe 2, Hutchinson 2, J. Fidge 2, Bailey 1, Ellingworth 1
Best - Withers, J. Fidge, Allday
Under 19s
Melbourne 20.12.132 defeated Hawthorn 15.19.109
Goals - Louttit 5, Payne 4, Lyon 3, Paul McCarty 3, Grinter 2, Peter McCarty 1, Cheung 1, Hay 1
Best - Louttit, Lawrence, Paul McCarty
Lists
Highest losing scores
Media
Canberra Times - 15/04/1984
Age - 16/04/1984
Football Record R4 1984