Round 15, 2015
Essendon vs Melbourne
Saturday 11 July
Venue: MCG
Attendance: 38,861
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| Essendon | 1.3 | 3.4 | 9.7 | 10.9.69 |
| Melbourne | 1.3 | 3.9 | 4.13 | 7.18.60 |
Essendon win by 9 points
Goalkickers: Jeff Garlett 1, Jesse Hogan 1, Jeremy Howe 1, Neville Jetta 1, Tom McDonald 1, Dom Tyson 1, Aaron vandenBerg 1
Brownlow votes
1 - Bernie Vince
Milestones
First game
James Harmes
The Demons started as favourites, but continued their recent trend of being unable to win when expected to. Essendon were weakened by injuries to key players and had lost by 110 points the previous week but managed to resist their wasteful opponents long enough to get themselves firmly in the game.
Melbourne was dominating out of the centre through Max Gawn - who broke the all-time club record for hitouts in a game - but their forward entries were haphazard and they failed to take full advantage - and a 5.2 to 0.1 Essendon run during the third quarter contributed to a 24 point lead at three quarter time.
With defender Tom McDonald thrown forward in an attempt to give his side something new up front the Demons clawed their way back into the game but continued to be wasteful. After Neville Jetta kicekd the first goal of the last quarter to cut the margin to three goals they then booted five behinds. Quick goals to Jeff Garlett and McDonald got the margin back to under a goal with plenty of time left but they were sunk by Joe Daniher's fifth major of the day.
Max Gawn had 58 hitouts, a club record until he beat his own mark in Round 3, 2016 with 63.
Best were Gawn, Viney and Vince. Jay Kennedy Harris replaced debutante James Harmes during the third quarter.