SANDRINGHAM
Affiliated: VFA 1929-95; VFL 1996-present
Club Address: P.O. Box 16, Sandringham 3191, Victoria
Home Ground: Beach Park Reserve, Beach Road, Sandringham
Formed: 1929
Colours: Gold, black and blue
Emblem: Zebras
Premierships: VFA/1st Division - 1946, 1962, 1985, 1992, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2004-5-6 (10 total)
Recorder Cup winners: T.Bourke 1929 (1 total)
J.J.Liston Trophy winners: S.Tomlins 1947; K.Burns 1962; N.MacLeod 1985; J.Rugolo 1992; J.Crough 1997; D.Robbins 2003; P.Johnson 2005 (7 total)
Highest Score: 44.20 (284) vs. Dandenong on 20 May 1984
Most Games: 165 by Anthony Allen from 1986 to 1996
Record Home Attendance: 12,000 (approximately) on 10 June 1972: Sandringham 16.17 (113); Port Melbourne 14.10 (94)
Record Finals Attendance: [see footnote 1] 29,664 for 1977 grand final at the Junction Oval: Port Melbourne 23.19 (157); Sandringham 7.15 (57)
| GREAT GAMES LINKS: | 
Zebras
Back From The Brink |
| MINI-BIOGRAPHIES: | Tom Alvin Trevor Barker Norm Beckton George Bennett Ted Bourke Ross Brewer Denis Clark Ian Cooper Ted Fletcher Bert Foster Bruce Harper Roy Harper Ted Johnson Stan Judkins Bob Keddie Ernie McIntyre Kevin Murray Jeff Sarau Phil Stevens Stan Tomlins Len Toyne 'Leo' Wescott |
| OTHER RELATED LINKS: |
A Review Of The 1962
Football Season |
The first moves to enter a Sandringham-based team in the VFA 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.
Some Sandringham Players of the 1930s |
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| L.Johnson, centre half back | N.Beckton, follower | B.Bailes, half forward | H.Johnson, full forward | |||
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 2 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 1st 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 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 were 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.
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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 7 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 31 points. Sandringham did not qualify for the major round again until 1951 when their progress was halted by Oakleigh at the 1st semi final stage. For much of the remainder of the decade Sandringham struggled but the 1959 season saw them starting to build toward greater things as they qualified for the finals in 2nd place, only to succumb in straight sets to Williamstown and Coburg. However, the experience gained clearly stood them 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 1st semi final but 1962 brought another memorable premiership triumph. [see footnote 2] After finishing the home and away rounds in 2nd place Sandringham lost the 2nd semi final to Moorabbin by 36 points before recovering to down Coburg in the following week's preliminary final by 4 goals. |
Sandringham full forward Bruce Harper, who topped the VFA goal kicking list with 71 majors in 1950 and 104 the following year. |
Not surprisingly, the Zebras went into the grand final as underdogs, and the first three quarters of the match only served to endorse this 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 1964 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 3rd place.
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Williamstown's Brett McTaggart (left) and Sandringham's Anthonu Allen watch as Bill Jacobs tosses the coin before the start of the 1992 VFA grand final. (Click to enlarge.) |
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 packed 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 2nd 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 during 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 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 approximately 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 2 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 6 goals for the victors who were best served by Liddell, Pitt, Maloney, Febey and Haynes. |
The Zebras' 1994 premiership team. (Click to enlarge.) |
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 (59) despite managing just 2 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 at times during a frenetic final term. The grand final opposition on this occasion was provided by Geelong, 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 1982 to clinch three successive senior premierships.
The Zebras' bid for a fourth consecutive flag foundered at the 1st semi final stage in 2007 when they suffered a shock 17 point defeat at the hands of North Ballarat.
In their new incarnation the Zebras appear as well placed as any of their peers to confront the challenges of the emerging century. Traditionalists may bemoan what they see as the dilution of the club's true identity, but ultimately, in football as in most other walks of life, it is survival which counts.
Where now?
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Footnotes
1. Prior to 1971, other than in the period 1939 to 1941, VFA grand final attendances were only estimated; in both 1946 and 1960 Sandringham played in front of grand final crowds estimated to be in the region of 30,000, but the fact that such estimates cannot be substantiated means they cannot be deemed 'official'. Return to Main Text
2. This might seem a redundant description in that, to the victors, all premierships are 'memorable' almost by definition. However, Sandringham's habit of acquiring premierships in the most dramatic of circumstances is arguably unequalled. Return to Main Text