Saturday 8 July - St Kilda
Crowd - 3000
St Kilda 0
Melbourne 3 (half time 0-2)
Melbourne win by 3 goals
Goalkickers: John Macdonald 2, Utar Nicholas 1
Fresh off a shock victory over Carlton a week earlier, Melbourne took on a St Kilda side unbeaten in seven. The locals caught them by surprise and lock the ball in attack for the first 10 minutes of the game.
Melbourne eventually took over, kicking two goals through Macdonald in the first half. As the sides left the ground Synnott of St Kilda - who wasn't even playing - punched Melbourne's Fred Baker in the mouth, apparently because of something which had occured in a match two seasons previous, before Baker had joined Melbourne. The Reds spent the next month trying to get an apology from Synnott through his club but none was forthcoming.
St Kilda were forced to play with a man short for the last hour after one of their number had suffered a serious injury. They defended grimly in the midst of high tension after the half-time fracas, before Nicholas added a third to kill the game off.
Best were Forrester, Carr and Hopkins.
Media
Argus 17/07/1876
Australasian - 22/07/1876
Age - 24/08/1876