Saturday 11 September - Melbourne Ground
Crowd: 3500
Melbourne 3
Carlton Imperial 3 (half time 2-0)
Match drawn
Goalkickers: Utar Nicholas 1, P. Goldsmith 1, Cullen 1
Melbourne's second straight draw came as their season began to peter out. Imperial's first season in senior competition had been impressive, with two draws against Carlton and another tie in their first visit to the Melbourne Ground was another impressive result.
Enthusiasm for Melbourne's season was clearly on the wane when they could only field 14 players. Amongst the missing were important members of the side like Carr, Watson, Towle and the Loughnan brothers. They were only able to find three substitutes so went into the game playing with 17 against 20.
Despite the handicap Melbourne scored first through Nicholas, and then again through the younger brother of Ben Goldsmith. At half time the score was 2-0 in Melbourne's favour, but they began to run out of steam in the second with their inferior numbers.
Melbourne defended grimly in the face of a number of attacks but eventually conceded two quick goals to level the score. Cullen wrested the lead back before a controversial equaliser - Stokes touched Carlton's shot on goal but the opposition claim he'd stepped over the mark and so he was given another shot.
Best were Kneen, Booth and Bennie.
It was the highest scoring draw in football history to that point.
Selected
Bennie, Bennie, Booth, Carr, Davidson, Down, Forrester, Hammill, Johnson, Kneen, Landon, Longden, Loughnan, Loughnan, Nicholas, Ryan, Sillett, Towle, Watson, Williams. Emergencies - Dowling, Horan, Scott, Sampson
Media
Argus - 11/09/1875