Round 7, 1898
Melbourne vs Geelong
Saturday 18 June
Venue: MCG
Attendance: Unknown
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| Melbourne | 1.1 | 5.1 | 9.4 | 9.5.59 |
| Geelong | 0.2 | 3.4 | 4.4 | 5.9.39 |
Melbourne win by 20 points
Goalkickers: Jack Leith 4, Fred McGinis 2, Jimmy Russell 2
Milestones:
First MFC Game
Jimmy Aitken
Last Game
Norm McLeod
On recent form, Geelong had been expected to win easily, but the tables were turned on them at the MCG by Melbourne playing the better football for three quarters of the match. The Reds also had a weakened team, with Sholl, Lanigan and McCulloch absent with injury and McCulloch unavailable. Steele played despite twisting his ankle at Thursday training.
Kicking with the wind in their favour in the first quarter Melbourne only got one goal thanks to strong defence from Geelong's Burns, but prevented the opposition from getting any. After being held at bay almost all quarter McGinis got his first goal and gave Melbourne the lead.
In the second quarter Ned Sutton made a change to switch Jack Leith onto Burns and Leith beat him comfortably. He had two goals in the first few minutes of the quarter and opened up a lead at half time. Leith got two more in the third quarter and opened up a lead of 30 points. Geelong chipped away at it in the end but they were too far behind and failed to kick straight when they had opportunities.
Best were McGinis, Wardill and Moysey.