Round 8, 1997
Melbourne vs Geelong
Saturday 17 May
Venue: MCG
Attendance: 28,989
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| Melbourne | 2.2 | 5.3 | 7.6 | 7.7.49 |
| Geelong | 5.2 | 7.5 | 11.8 | 19.14.128 |
Geelong win by 79 points
Goalkickers: Sean Charles 3, Jeff Farmer 3, Robert Pyman 1
Brownlow Votes:
Nil
Milestones:
100 games
Matthew Febey
On a day where the Febey twins became the first in VFL/AFL history to both play 100 games, Melbourne's wretched start to the season continued with a seventh consecutive loss, another low score, and another big margin. The understrength Demons held on until the third quarter, where they only trailed by a point at one stage, before Geelong piled on 12 unanswered goals. During half-time, the injured David Schwarz was quoted in his radio special comments role as saying Neil Balme was a "bit too positive" as coach, and that some of his teammates needed "a kick up the bum".
With David Neitz out after a broken jaw the previous week, Balme was forced to play Jeff Farmer and Sean Charles as key forwards. They kicked six of their side's seven goals, and Charles cut the margin to a point seven minutes into the third quarter. Then the resistance ended. Geelong got the last four goals before three quarter time, and all eight in the last quarter. Melbourne only scored two more behinds, and didn't enter their forward 50 until 20 minutes into the final quarter.
The under fire Balme dressed down his players after the match, and told the media "we worked pretty hard early, but we let ourselves and everybody down after that". A frustrated Jim Stynes said he couldn't understand what had happened to the side, saying the team "were all weak". He said "we just gave up. There's no excuse. I just hate it when it's like this".
Best were Stynes, Charles and Farmer
Reserves
Geelong 17.15.117 d. Melbourne 6.11.47
Goals - Bolton 2, Newton 1, Nicholson 1, Ward 1, Robertson 1
Best - Irving, Bolton, Winterton
Media
Age - 18/05/1997, 19/05/1997
Football Record - R9 1997