Saturday 2 September - Melbourne Ground
Crowd: 5000
Melbourne 1
East Melbourne 1 (half time 1-1)
Match drawn
Goalkicker: Fred Baker 1
Melbourne kicked with the breeze in the first half and attacked strongly but their opponents kept them out with strong defence. Charles Baker eventually thought he had opened the scoring but it was overturned by the goal umpire who was also an East Melbourne player.
Easts then 'scored' a goal which seemed to go wide of the posts but was given by the Melbourne supplied goal umpire. Fred Baker then kicked another goal which was disallowed by the Easts player, but East Melbourne's captain opted to allow it. A furious Melbourne demanded the goal umpire switched, but when the replacement official also disallowed a perfectly good goal the Reds walked from the field.
Under a strict interpretation of the rules the match should have been a walkover in favour of East Melbourne, but in the circumstances the sides agreed that the result would be a draw.
Best were C. Baker, F. Baker and Longden.
Notes
Some sources don't count Baker's goal, but still show the game as a draw.
Media
Australasian - 09/09/1876