Saturday 23 June - East Melbourne
Crowd: 300
Melbourne 3.18
Ballarat 2.12 (half time 2.11-1.3)
Melbourne win by 1 goal
Goalkickers: Stiffe 1, Booth 1, Sloman 1
With other senior matches monopolising interest around Melbourne, only a few partisans showed up for the visit of the Ballarat side.
Neither side was at full strength, with the visitors being forced to use emergencies. The home side had the use of the breeze in the first half, and kicking downhill and Melbourne scored first through Stiffe before the visitors equalised almost immediately.
The equalising goal inspired Melbourne, and they went on the attack again with several behinds in a row before Booth scored a second.
With the reds looking sluggish in the absence of their usual crowd, they went through the motions in the second. Sloman kicked the first goal of the second half not long after the start, and that was it for their scoring. The visitors had several opportunities to level the score but could only managed one goal for the half.
With the greasy ball becoming heavy late in the game, Melbourne had chances to add another goal but couldn't get the ball through the posts.
Team
Aitken, Booth, Bower, Collins, Conway, Cunningham, Jones McKenzie, McDonald, McIntyre, Morris, Murphy, Patterson, Plant, Rush, Rickards, Sloman, Stiffe, Tuckfield, Ulbrick
Media
Herald - 22/06/1883
Argus - 25/06/1883
Sportsman - 27/06/1883
Australasian - 30/06/1883