The Sandringham Football Club, nicknamed The Zebras, is an Australian rules football 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 me ...

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). I ...

(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 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 (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 in the 1990s after the death of Trevor Barker, 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 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 fo ...

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 wo ...

(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, crimin ...

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/Le ...

in April 1964. A Rec Footy competition is also played at the ground. The Sandringham Dragons play in the TAC Cup 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 Chad Liddell (born 21 January 1977) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Collingwood in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the 1990s. Liddell played his early football at Mentone Grammar and with the Southern Stingra ...

Stan Tomlins Stan Tomlins (22 November 1923 – 25 June 2004) was an Australian rules footballer who played for Richmond in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Tomlins, a Hampton Amateur, was the centre half back in Sandringham's 1946 premiership team, t ...

* Len Toyne * Dallas O'Brien – 1983 Stawell Gift winner * Michael Conlan *

Jeff Sarau Jeff Sarau (born 25 January 1954) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for St Kilda in the Victorian Football League and West Torrens Football Club in the South Australian National Football League as a ruckman. Although at 191 ...

- St. Kilda * James Magner *

Jack Gunston Jack Gunston (born 16 October 1991) is a professional Australian footballer who plays for the Brisbane Lions in the Australian Football League (AFL). Early life Gunston was raised in Melbourne in Beaumaris and attended Haileybury College, pla ...

* Max Stokes * Des Kennedy

Honours

Club

VFA/VFL Grand Finals

VFA/VFL Club Records

Individual

JJ Liston Trophy The J. J. Liston Trophy is awarded annually to the best and fairest senior player in the Victorian Football League (formerly the Victorian Football Association). It is named after J.J. Liston, a businessman, civic leader and sports administrato ...

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