Round 3, 1992
Melbourne vs Adelaide
Saturday 4 April
Venue: Princes Park
Attendance: 9278
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| Melbourne | 4.4 | 7.9 | 10.13 | 13.17.95 |
| Adelaide | 4.2 | 8.7 | 10.12 | 15.14.104 |
Adelaide win by 9 points
Goalkickers: Allen Jakovich 5, Darren Bennett 3, Andy Lovell 2, Andrew Obst 1, David Schwarz 1, Todd Viney 1
Brownlow votes:
1 - Jim Stynes
Milestones:
Nil
After impressing in their first hitout of the season against Geelong the Demons played a rare home game at Princes Park. Adelaide had a poor record in Victoria, but had won their only other start at the ground, and they continued their good record there. The altered venue was unpopular with Melbourne fans, who generally responded by not turning. The club tried to overcome confusion about arrangments for members through newspaper advertisements, but still saw a sub-10,000 crowd for their first home game against the Crows.
On a day where temperatures in Melbourne rose to 31 degrees, the two sides played out a surprisingly good, high scoring match. The Demons were given a good start by the strong ruckwork of defending Brownlow Medallist Jim Stynes, who had been restricted to five minutes of training on Thursday night due to a back complaint, but his teammates insistence on short kicking rather than bombing it towards Allen Jakovich and Darren Bennett, meant they were wasteful.
The Demons were as many as three goals in front in the first quarter, but they blew several chances. In the third quarter, Bennett, Jakovich and Andy Lovell all missed open goals. At the other end, Adelaide made the most of their opportunities and in a game that was never more than a couple of goals one way or the other came out on top in a tight last term. The Crows led by as much as 13 points during the third quarter, before three Jakovich goals got the Demons back in front. Adelaide cut the margin to a point at three quarter time, and but conceded the first goal of the last term before rallying.
The Crows retook the lead, with two quick goals at the start of time-on gave them a buffer. A running Andrew Obst goal at the 28 minute mark cut the margin back to five points. The ball was won straight out of the centre by Steven Febey, who pumped it forward. Andy Lovell had a snap at goal but it was marked on the line. Adelaide went up the other end of the ground and goalled on the siren to extend the final margin to 11 points.
Best were Yeats, Tingay and Pickering. Jakovich suffered a suspected groin injury as well as the indignity of having his five goal performance called "a very poor game" by John Northey. He had kicked all of his goals by three quarter time and did not feature in the last before going off with his injury and his coach said "I hope he learnt a lesson out of today. If you just try to cheat the way he did it won't come off". Northey also attacked his on-ball players for not getting enough possessions, calling it "another example of Melbourne letting itself down."
Best were Steven Stretch, Graeme Yeats and Jim Stynes. Yeats injured his hamstring.
The score was originally reported as 105-95, but several days later the AFL altered it to 104-95 due to a scoring error.
Video
Notes
Age 05/04/1992 gives the crowd as 9364.
Reserves
Melbourne 18.18.126 d. Fitzroy 12.14.86
Goals - Williams 4, Charles 4, Lamb 3, Kilmartin 2, McKay 2, Cuthbertson 1, Hopgood 1, Nelson 1
Best - Henwood, Neitz, Charles
Media
Age - 02/04/1992, 05/04/1992, 06/04/1992, 11/04/1992
Canberra Times - 05/04/1992
Football Record - R4 1992