Round 18, 2000
Melbourne vs Sydney
Saturday 8 July
Venue: MCG
Attendance: 33,923
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| Melbourne | 3.5 | 7.8 | 11.9 | 19.11.125 |
| Sydney | 4.1 | 7.2 | 11.6 | 15.9.99 |
Melbourne win by 26 points
Goalkickers: Jeff Farmer 4, Russell Robertson 3, Shane Woewodin 3, James McDonald 2, Adem Yze 2, Travis Johnstone 1, Anthony McDonald 1, David Schwarz 1, Troy Simmonds 1, Jeff White 1
Brownlow votes:
3 - James McDonald
1 - Shane Woewodin
Best and Fairest
31.5 - James McDonald
27 - Shane Woewodin
27 - Matthew Whelan
26.5 - Alistair Nicholson
12 - Stephen Powell
6 - Russell Robertson
6 - Anthony McDonald
Milestones:
50 games
Russell Robertson
In a match that was goal-for-goal for most of the day, it took eight goals in the last quarter to deliver a win to the now all but confirmed finals bound Demons. During the first half alone the lead had changed ten times, with the scores level on four occassions.
Sydney took a narrow lead into quarter time of a free-flowing game despite two James McDonald goals, but the Demons were fierce in the second quarter with Shane Woewodin so desperate to get to one contest that he pushed McDonald out of the way to get the football. Matthew Whelan, comfortably beaten by Paul Kelly in the first quarter, started to rebound the ball effortlessly in the second and was a prime contributor to Melbourne's six point lead at the long break.
The Demons three goals in the first nine minutes of the third quarter to lead by 24, but Sydney struck back with a few minutes of magic and hit the front shortly before three quarter time. Melbourne got their noses back in front just before the siren, and from there they ran away with the game easily with Jeff Farmer and Woewodin kicking six of the eight goals between them.
Whelan and Nicholson were also solid contributors for the Demons. Andrew Leoncelli (bruised hip) was replaced in the selected side by Daniel Ward
Neale Daniher said "Obviously very happy to win the game today. Sydney were very desperate. I thought they took the game up to us." 11 of his side's 19 goals had come from general play.
Media
Age - 09/07/2000
Herald Sun - 09/07/2000
Sun-Herald - 09/07/2000