The Sandringham Football Club, nicknamed The Zebras, is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

club based in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

which was formed in 1929 and plays in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL) which was formerly called the Victorian Football Association (VFA).

History

The Sandringham Football Club was admitted to the VFA competition (now VFL) for the 1929 season, though the first moves to establish a semi-professional football team from the Sandringham region began two years earlier. The club was formed in that time as a three-way merge of the existing amateur clubs in the area, Sandringham Amateurs, Black Rock FC and Hampton Amateurs. The club colours of gold, black and blue were taken from those three local teams respectively. In the clubs' first 10 years of existence, they achieved a final end of season ladder position of no higher than 5th, which came in the 1933 season. Sandringham recorded its inaugural premiership in the 1946 season, coming from behind late in the final quarter to record a 7-point win over

Camberwell Camberwell () is a district of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross. Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles and a common of which Goose Green is a remnant. This ...

in front of 30,000 spectators. Though the club struggled throughout the 1950s, it has since gone on to record 10 premierships in total, being one of the most consistent teams in the VFL, their most successful period coming in the 2000s, with 4 premierships in 10 years cementing the club as one of the premier teams in the league.

Club information

The Zebras have an alignment agreement with

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling ...

(AFL) club St Kilda which has been in place since 2009. The alignment agreement means that St Kilda listed players who are able to play but not selected for the Saints in the AFL are available to be selected for the Zebras in the VFL. The clubs extended their agreement at the end of 2016. Previously, Sandringham had an alignment with

. Sandringham and Melbourne were the first two clubs to form an alignment. This was announced in 1999 and began in the 2000 season. The alignment had an immediate effect with Sandringham winning the premiership in 2000, and a further three premierships (2004, 2005 and 2006) were won during the affiliation. The Zebras' home ground is and almost always has been the Beach Oval, which was renamed the

Trevor Barker Beach Oval Trevor Barker Beach Oval, currently known under naming rights as the Wilson Storage Trevor Barker Beach Oval, is an Australian rules football ground in Beach Road, on the border between Hampton and Sandringham, Victoria. Most commonly known as ...

in the 1990s after the death of

Trevor Barker Trevor Graeme Barker (7 October 1956 – 26 April 1996) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). One of the VFL's pin-up boys with his teen-idol appearance, blonde hair ...

, who had coached Sandringham to the 1992 and 1994 premierships. Only in 1966 did the club change home grounds, spending a year at the

Junction Oval Junction Oval (also known as the St Kilda Cricket Ground, or the CitiPower Centre due to sponsorship reasons) is a historic sports ground in the suburb of St Kilda in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The oval's location near the St Kilda J ...

in St Kilda before moving back to Beach Oval ahead of the 1967 season. From the 2018 season, the club will play three of its home games each year at Moorabbin Oval, and will wear St Kilda's black, red and white guernsey in these games. The oval has a single

grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap al ...

(the

Neil Bencraft Neil C. Bencraft (8 December 1924 – 11 October 2010) was an Australian rules football player and coach with the Sandringham Football Club in the Victorian Football Association. Bencraft, a rover originally from Sandringham, played briefly f ...

Grandstand), a southern end named after

Nick Sautner Nicholas Sautner (born 19 June 1977) is an Australian rules footballer, best known for his Victorian Football League (VFL) football career with the Sandringham Zebras. He also played for Frankston in 2001 and 2002 and Preston in 2003. He won ...

(the Sautner Goal), and an administration centre (the John Mennie Administration Centre) – a

social club A social club may be a group of people or the place where they meet, generally formed around a common interest, occupation, or activity. Examples include: book discussion clubs, chess clubs, anime clubs, country clubs, charity work, criminal ...

and a capacity for 10,000. A record crowd of 18,000 attended the venue's first Sunday VFA premiership game, held between Sandringham and

Port Melbourne Football Club The Port Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Borough, is an Australian rules football club based in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Port Melbourne. The club was founded in 1874 and has been competing in the Victorian Football Association/Leag ...

in April 1964. A Rec Footy competition is also played at the ground. The Sandringham Dragons play in the

TAC Cup The NAB League Boys (also referred to as simply the NAB League and formerly known as the TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition held in Australia. It is based on geographic regions throughout country Vict ...

and are due to become part of the Sandringham club in the near future.

Recent VFL Seasons

Notable former players

* Ian Cooper – St. Kilda. Best on ground in

1966 VFL grand final The 1966 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Collingwood Football Club and St Kilda Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 24 September 1966. It was the 69th annual grand final ...

premiership. * Bob Murray - St. Kilda * Rex Hunt - Richmond, Geelong, St Kilda (1968-1978) *

* Chad Liddell * Stan Tomlins * Len Toyne * Dallas O'Brien – 1983

Stawell Gift The Stawell Gift is Australia's oldest and richest short-distance running race. It is the main event in an annual carnival held on Easter weekend by the Stawell Athletic Club, with the main race finals on the holiday Monday, at Central Park, ...

winner * Michael Conlan * Jeff Sarau - St. Kilda *

James Magner James Magner (born 12 August 1987) is an Australian rules football player who formerly played professionally at the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Early career After playing junior football for the Beaconsfie ...

* Jack Gunston * Max Stokes * Des Kennedy

Honours

Club

VFA/VFL Grand Finals

VFA/VFL Club Records

Individual

JJ Liston Trophy Winners (8)
1929 – Edward Bourke
1947 – Stan Tomlins
1962 – Keith Burns
1985 – Neil McLeod
1992 – Joe Rugolo
1997 – Justin Crough
2003 – David Robbins
2005 – Paul Johnson

References

External links

* {{VFL Victorian Football League clubs Australian rules football clubs established in 1929 Australian rules football clubs in Melbourne 1929 establishments in Australia Italian-Australian backed sports clubs of Victoria Australian Reserve team football Sport in the City of Bayside