Saturday 26 July - Hotham
Crowd - 2000

Hotham 2.5
Melbourne 1.8 (half time 2.5-0.0)

Hotham win by 1 goal

Goalkicker: McAlister 1

Having already beaten Hotham once for the season, and coming off a two game winning streak, Melbourne seemed a good chance to continue their run but were missing several of their usual players who had failed to turn up.

The match also suffered from a large part of the arena being covered with tan which stopped players from running and bouncing as the ball would not come back to them. The tan had been poured because the ground was covered in slime before the match. This limitation (and the fact that Melbourne had to use several reserves) hurt the match as a spectacle, but Hotham were not concerned in the first half as they dominated.

From the first kick off Hotham had Melbourne desperately defending, and they stayed on the back foot for the whole first half. They got two goals in a row, with another disallowed, and Melbourne failed to score. There was little or no wind to give them the advantage, but strangely Melbourne dominated in the same style during the second half.

Immediately from the kick off the reds rushed the ball forward and forced a behind for the first time and after turning back an attack from Hotham they scored their first major through McAlister. Jones could have equalised, but his kick from 20 yards out was wide, and Pohlman hit the post in the dying minutes but Melbourne couldn't find a second goal and were beaten.

Best were Jones, Aitken and Pohlman.

Media
Argus - 28/07/1884
Sportsman - 30/07/1884
Australasian - 02/08/1884