Saturday 6 September - Corio Oval
Crowd: 1000
Geelong 6.10
Melbourne 4.7 (half time 2.4-3.5)
Geelong win by 2 goals
Goalkickers: MacGregor 1, Stubbs 1, Moss 1, Plant 1
Two wins in the middle of the season had seemingly rescued a season that was going very badly for the red and blues, but they had collapsed to four straight losses since on either side of a trip to Adelaide and Geelong heaped more pain on them at Corio Oval. A crowd much lower than the sort which had watched the two clubs in their glory era as the two best teams in the colony was attributed to threatening weather and the belief that Geelong would wipe the floor with their visitors.
In the end Melbourne, playing with a weakened side full of youngsters, put up a much better fight than was expected. They had the wind in the first half and kicked the first behind, but Geelong followed the script by kicking the all important first major of the afternoon. Not long after though, McGregor goalled from a hurried shot on goal to level the scores.
Stub then put Melbourne in front, but Geelong didn't waste much time equalising before a lucky goal put Melbourne back in front via the previously unheralded Moss sneaking a bouncing goal through from a tight angle. Despite 10 minutes of pressure from the home side they went into half time behind.
The home side then gained the use of the wind in the second half and set about overturning the one goal deficit, scoring their third to level the scores almost immediately after the kick off. Melbourne took the lead a fourth time though, with Plant scoring from a place kick.
From there Geelong finally took control. They battered the Melbourne goal for 15 minutes and eventually got their fourth. At this point the predicted rains came, making the ball hard to handle and the grass slippery. Geelong handled the conditions better and broke away with two goals to win.
Best were Coulson, Propsting and Ross.
Media
Argus - 08/09/1884
Sportsman - 10/09/1884
Australasian - 13/09/1884