Australian Football

Sandringham

The first moves to enter a Sandringham-based team in the Victorian Football Association were instigated in 1927 via the proposed merger of three clubs from the locality. This initial overture was rejected, but two years later when the same three clubs once again approached the VFA their proposal was accepted and the Sandringham Football Club was born.

Admitted to the VFA along with Oakleigh, Sandringham’s initial team colours bore testimony to their origins, with gold from Sandringham Amateurs, black from Black Rock, and blue from Hampton Amateurs.

Sandringham struggled throughout the pre-war period and when VFA competition resumed after the war in 1945 the side once again failed to shine, winning just two out of 20 matches all year to avoid the wooden spoon only on percentage. In 1946, however, the Zebras, coached by Len Toyne, not only reached the finals for the first time, they also, to most people’s surprise, actually went on to claim the flag. A comfortable 29-point defeat of Port Melbourne in the first semi final was followed by one of the most dramatic VFA finals encounters of all time in the preliminary final. Trailing Williamstown by 40 points at three quarter time Sandringham suddenly found optimal form to put in an inspired final term’s performance and snatch victory by the narrowest of margins, 16.19 (115) to 16.18 (114). Stirring last quarter comebacks had been something of a Sandringham specialty in 1946, but this was easily the most sensational - and significant - of them all.

Grand final opposition was provided by Camberwell, and the game bore a special significance in that neither participant had previously won a premiership. However, Camberwell, which had topped the ladder after the minor round, and which included in its line up a number of former VFL champions, was warmly favoured by most pundits to win.

The match was closely contested throughout, but in the end it was teamwork, physicality and fitness which won out over individual brilliance as Sandringham edged home by seven points. Captain-coach Toyne, a former Fitzroy and Geelong player, put in a sterling individual performance for the victors, particularly in the last quarter when he moved from the back pocket onto the ball. He was well supported by the likes of rovers Reg Parker and Neil Bencraft and forwards Geoff Brokenshire and Fred Evans.

In 1947 Sandringham again contested the grand final but lost to Port Melbourne by 29 points.

The Zebras did not qualify for the major round again until 1951 when they failed to get past the first hurdle against Oakleigh.

For much of the remainder of the decade Sandringham struggled but the 1959 season saw the team starting to build toward greater things as it qualified for the finals in second place, only to succumb in "straight sets" to Williamstown and Coburg. However, the experience gained clearly stood the side in good stead as the 1960s would prove to be easily the Zebras’ most successful decade to date.

In 1960, Sandringham reached the grand final but lost heavily to Oakleigh. Williamstown accounted for the Zebras in the following year’s first semi final but 1962 brought another memorable premiership triumph.[1] After finishing the home and away rounds in second place Sandringham lost the second semi final to Moorabbin by 36 points before recovering to down Coburg in the following week’s preliminary final by 4 goals.

Not surprisingly, the Zebras went into the grand final as outsiders, and the first three quarters of the match only served to endorse expectations as Moorabbin led at every change by margins of 2, 9 and a seemingly match-winning 44 points. Sandringham coach Neil Bencraft (who had kicked the decisive goal in the 1946 Grand Final) spent the three quarter time break taking his players heatedly and remorselessly to task over their performance and during the final term they responded dramatically. After being well beaten in most positions Sandringham lifted all over the ground, spending almost the entire last quarter in attack and adding 8.3 to 1.0 to overhaul Moorabbin in the dying moments and win by a solitary point, 14.10 (94) to 13.15 (93). Centre half forward Bob Murray, ruckman Laurie O’Toole, rover Graham Dawson and half forward flanker Carl Strachan were the chief driving forces behind the win.

Moorabbin achieved revenge to the tune of 64 points in the 1963 grand final and although the Zebras continued to perform strongly throughout the ensuing years of the decade - contesting the finals every year except 1966 - they proved unable to rise above third place.

Sandringham next played off for the premiership in the VFA’s centenary year of 1977, but Port Melbourne proved much too formidable, winning by the distressingly (from the Zebras’ point of view) appropriate margin of precisely 100 points.

Sandringham’s uncanny propensity for featuring in classic Grand Finals continued in 1985 with a thrilling 6 point defeat of Williamstown. A sizeable crowd of 22,341 squeezed into the Junction Oval for a game which showcased VFA football at its vibrant, dramatic, ebullient best. Sandringham half forward flanker Mark Eaves finished with 5 of his team’s 14 goals and was awarded the Norm Goss Medal for best afield, while other sterling performances came from ruckman Greg Beilby and rovers Neil Macleod and Ross Gallagher.

After failing to contest the finals between 1986 and 1991 the Zebras returned to the September fray with a vengeance in 1992 when they finished the home and away rounds in pole position before overcoming Prahran by 28 points in the second semi final and Williamstown by 44 points in a high standard grand final. Ruckman Joe Rugolo’s Liston Trophy victory was icing on the cake.

Two years later the Zebras were once again pre-eminent when their 9 point grand final defeat of Box Hill rounded off a superb season which had seen them taste defeat only twice in 20 matches.

Springvale got the better of Sandringham by 43 points in the 1995 Grand Final, which was the last match played under the umbrella of the VFA. From 1996 the competition was re-christened (some would say replaced by) the VFL, with the Zebras returning to the winners’ circle the following year with a 10.13 (73) to 5.14 (44) grand final defeat of Frankston in front of a crowd of roughly 10,000 spectators at Port Melbourne. Precisely twenty seasons earlier the Zebras had appeared in front of a grand final crowd three times that size, but Australian football in the 1990s was a much more elitist game than hitherto. Evidence for this statement is afforded by the fact that in 1977 just under 50% of the Australians who physically attended Australian football matches during the season did so at VFL grounds, with the figure for the VFA being roughly 7-8%; by 1997 these percentages had increased to close to 90% for the AFL, but slumped to approximately 2% for the VFL.

Sandringham joined forces with Melbourne for a 2000 season which saw a massive re-organisation of the tier of Victorian football immediately below the AFL. Still known as the Sandringham Football Club, the Zebras each week included a number of Melbourne reserves players in their line-up, an innovation which did absolutely no harm to the side as it comfortably finished the home and away rounds at the top of the ladder before barn-storming its way through to a grand final showdown with North Ballarat. Played at Waverley, where Sandringham had suffered its only two losses of the 2000 season, there were many who felt that the Roosters might have the edge. However, after holding their opponents to just 0.5 in the opening term while posting 4.6 themselves the Zebras never looked back, winning comfortably in the end by 31 points. Final scores were Sandringham 15.18 (108) to North Ballarat 11.11 (77). Nick Sautner booted six goals for the victors who were best served by Liddell, Pitt, Maloney, Febey and Haynes.

Four years later, in front of 8,196 spectators at Optus Oval, the Zebras secured their eighth senior flag after holding off a fast finishing Port Melbourne by 4 points. Sandringham won 9.13 (67) to 9.9 (63) despite managing just two behinds in the final quarter. Six-time Frosty Miller Medallist Nick Sautner top scored with 4 goals, while Guy Rigoni was awarded the Norm Goss Medal for best afield. Both teams included the maximum twelve AFL-listed players in their line-ups, of which Rigoni was one.

In 2005, courtesy of an 11.17 (83) to 11.8 (74) grand final defeat of Werribee, Sandringham secured back to back flags for the first time in the club’s history. Defender Daniel Ward, a Melbourne player, won the Norm Goss Medal. Just as in 2004, the Zebras eked out a comfortable three-quarter time lead - on this occasion 29 points - but then had to hang on grimly as their opponents mounted a formidable last quarter surge.

It was a case of déja-vu in 2006 as the Zebras again reached the grand final, again led comfortably at the last change, and again found themselves hanging on desperately for much of an at times frenetic final term. The grand final opposition on this occasion was provided by Geelong reserves, with Sandringham ultimately resisting everything the Cats could throw at them to eke out a deceptively comfortable 18 point win. Final scores saw Sandringham 13.13 (91) overcome Geelong 11.7 (73), with the Zebras’ West Australian midfielder Phil Read earning the Norm Goss Medal as best afield. Sandringham’s win made them the first VFL/A club since Port Melbourne in 1980-1-2 to claim three successive senior premierships.

The Zebras’ bid for a fourth consecutive flag floundered at the first semi final stage in 2007 when they suffered a shock 17 point defeat at the hands of North Ballarat. The 2008 season saw Sandringham drop to ninth place and therefore fail to make the finals despite boasting a percentage of 120.26 compared to eighth placed Northern Bullants' 89.47. The Bullants managed 1 more win than the Zebras.

In 2009 Sandringham changed their alignment from Melbourne to St Kilda but retained the Zebras nickname. In their new incarnation the Zebras appeared as well placed as any of their peers to confront the challenges of the emerging century but they have yet to add to their premiership haul. Their best season since affiliating with the Saints was 2015 when they got as far as a preliminary final only to lose by 7 points to Box Hill Hawks. 

In the wake of the multifarious alignments which now exist traditionalists may bemoan what they see as the dilution of the cVFL clubs' identities but ultimately, in football as in most other walks of life, it is survival which counts.