Australian Football

The Sandhurst Football Club was established in 1861 by JB Thompson, who two years earlier in Melbourne had been secretary of the committee responsible for drawing up the first formal laws of the game. Sandhurst can thus claim to be among the oldest football clubs in Australia.

It has also been one of the most regularly successful. A founder member in 1880 of the Bendigo Football Association, it won the first of its twenty-seven senior premierships the following year. By the end of the nineteenth century Sandhurst had already claimed half a dozen flags, a tally only exceeded by Eaglehawk. However, at the end of the 1900 season the club went into recess, for reasons which are unclear, and did not resume until the Bendigo Football League (as the Association had been renamed in 1913) recommenced after a four season break for war in 1919.

For long time devotees of the club it was a case of déja-vu as Sandhurst claimed a premiership at the second time of asking. Further flags followed in 1923 and 1927 before the side embarked on the longest sustained era of dominance of any club in BdFL history by going top six seasons in succession from 1929 to 1934. The results of the grand finals of those years afford clear evidence of the team’s superiority, with only South Bendigo in 1931 seemingly providing much more than token opposition: 

1929 Sandhurst 18.11 (119); South Bendigo 11.10 (76)

1930 Sandhurst 17.9 (111); Eaglehawk 9.9 (63)

1931 Sandhurst 10.14 (74); South Bendigo 8.14 (62)

1932 Sandhurst 16.20 (116); Eaglehawk 7.9 (51)

1933 Sandhurst 29.15 (189); Maryborough 10.12 (72)

1934 Sandhurst 11.17 (83); Castlemaine 8.4 (52).

The Maroons went on to reach the grand finals of 1935, losing narrowly to Eaglehawk, and 1936, when they went down to Kyneton, before breaking through for their sixth flag of the decade with a 16.16 (112) to 6.15 (51) grand final mauling of South Bendigo in 1937. After world war two broke out in 1939 the BdFL initially opted to continue, and Sandhurst acquired yet another premiership in 1940. However, between 1942 and 1944 the league suspended operations.

Sandhurst’s combinations of the late 1940s were on a par with any in the club’s history, and claimed successive flags in 1947 and 1948. However, there then followed the longest premiership drought - twenty-four seasons - experienced by the club during the twentieth century. In five of those seasons, including an especially galling four in a row from 1952 to 1955, the Maroons got as far as the grand final, but were unable to effect the piéce de resistance.

The club’s fortunes finally turned in 1973 with a 14.14 (98) to 7.10 (52) grand final triumph over Golden Square. The remainder of the 1970s brought another four grand final appearances, with success coming in 1977 and 1978, both times at the expense of regular victims Golden Square.

After dominating the early 1980s with premierships in 1981 and 1983 the Dragons as they were by this stage known entered another prolonged spell of underachievement which finally came to an end in 2004. Their 15.14 (104) to 10.15 (75) grand final defeat of Gisborne that year gave them a league record - subsequently equalled and then overhauled by Eaglehawk - twenty-six senior grade premierships. 

The Maroons then underwent another fairly lengthy premiership drought which was finally broken in 2016 when they scored a comfortable 32 point win over Golden Square with scores of 12.18 (90) to 8.10 (58). With twenty-seven senior grade flags to their credit Sandhurst are now level with Eaglehawk at the top of the BdFL all time winners' list.

The 2017 season saw Sandhurst again contesting the finals and ultimately finishing fourth.