Sandringham has competed in the VFL – originally known as the Victorian Football Association (VFA) – since 1929, and was one of only two clubs to not be relegated to Division 2 when the VFA was split into two divisions.[6]
Sandringham men's side is a stand-alone outfit and is not affiliated with any other club. Between 2009 and 2025, the club had a reserves affiliation with Australian Football League (AFL) club St Kilda, and prior to that were affiliated with Melbourne. The club's women's side, which competes in the VFLW, retains an affiliation with St Kilda.[7][8]
History
Origins and formation
The first steps towards establishing a semi-professional football team from the Sandringham area were made in 1927, with the Black Rock Football Club (Black Rock Amateurs), the Hampton Football Club, the Sandringham Amateur Football Club and the Sandringham District Football Club discussing the viability of amalgamating to form a team in the VFA.[9] The proposal failed after a meeting of club representatives on 17 February 1927 despite Sandringham Amateurs "unreservedly" favouring the concept, as Black Rock was unable to field a team, Hampton opposed the merger on the grounds of losing local identity, and Sandringham District wanted at least three clubs involved.[10] All four clubs competed in the Metropolitan Amateur Football Association (MAFA) for the 1927 season.[11] On 15 August 1927, four other clubs merged to form the Sandringham Football Club.[12]
On 17 February 1928, Sandringham, Sandringham District and the Sandringham United Football Club amalgamated to form a new Sandringham Football Club.[13][14] This was, however, effectively a continuation of the Sandringham Amateurs.[15][16] The club entered two teams in the MAFA and one team in the Federal Football Association (FFA) junior competition for the 1928 season.[17][18] The second Sandringham team in the MAFA (known as Sandringham B) withdrew from C Section in August 1928 after having a record score kicked against them.[19][20]
Sandringham was told by the VFA in November 1928 that it would be admitted into the competition if it obtained permission to build a fence around Beach Road Oval; the lack of a fence had prevented the club from entering for the 1928 VFA season.[21][22] In January 1929, the Sandringham Council supported a bid from an (apparently new) senior Sandringham Football Club to enter the VFA.[23][24][25] The bid was successful, and Sandringham was accepted into the Association on 4 February 1929.[26][27][28]
Despite the admission, the club still faced a challenge prior to its first game.[29] Sandringham applied for the use of Beach Road Oval for its reserves team (Second Eighteen) on Saturdays, but Sandringham Amateurs − returning to the MAFA for the 1929 season − also applied for its use, having played at the ground for 20 years.[30][31] Sandringham Amateurs requested for use on alternate Saturdays and during the week for training purposes, while Sandringham said its VFA bid would have to be abandoned if it did not have access to the ground.[32][33] Ultimately, Sandringham Council choose to allow the Amateurs to continue using the ground.[34][35] Sandringham's VFA reserves team instead played its home games at Tulip Street Reserve.[36][37] The club wore the colours of gold, black and blue, taken from Sandringham Amateurs, Black Rock and Hampton.[38]
VFA/VFL
In the club's first 10 years of existence, they achieved a season finish of no better than 5th place, which came in the 1933 season.[38]
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.[39] 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.[40]
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.[41] 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.[42]
The oval has a single grandstand (the Neil Bencraft Grandstand), a south end named after Nick Sautner (the Sautner Goal), and an administration centre (the John Mennie Administration Centre)[43] – a social club and a capacity of 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 in April 1964.[44] A Rec Footy competition is also played at the ground.
AFL affiliations
Sandringham's away jumper featuring St Kilda's colours, used from 2019 until 2025
For many years the Zebras had an alignment agreement with Australian Football League (AFL) club St Kilda, an arrangement which was in effect from 2009 to 2025. Previously, Sandringham had an alignment with Melbourne.[46] Sandringham and Melbourne were the first two clubs to form an alignment. This Melbourne affiliation began in the 2000 season and produced fruitful outcomes for the club, with Sandringham winning the premiership in 2000, and a further three premierships in 2004, 2005 and 2006.[47]
The St Kilda affiliation was extended in 2013 to the conclusion of the 2015 season, with a plan for both clubs would go their separate ways the following year.[48][49] This led to Sandringham establishing a partnership with Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) club Hampton Rovers.[50] The affiliation was temporarily extended for the 2016 VFL season,[51][52] before a new rolling affiliation deal with no fixed term was signed, to begin in 2017.[42] The new deal changed the nature of the affiliation, expanding St Kilda's involvement in Sandringham's operation − including removing a stipulation from the previous agreement that no more than 14 St Kilda-listed players could play in Sandringham's senior team in any given match and Sandringham playing three games per year in St Kilda colours (beginning in 2019) at Moorabbin Oval, St Kilda's former home ground.[53][54]
In October 2023, St Kilda announced that, beginning at the 2025 AFL rookie draft, it would use one of its rookie list places to draft a Sandringham player.[55] However, at the 2025 rookie draft, which was held in November 2024, this did not occur.[56]
The affiliation agreement will end following the 2025 VFL season.[57] In 2026, Sandringham will field a standalone team in the VFL, but the affiliation will remain in place in the VFLW.[58]
Sandringham's affiliation with St Kilda extended to the VFL Women's (VFLW), when the club began co-managing a women's side in the competition with St Kilda in 2019. The team was called the Southern Saints and finished in 8th position in its first season. In 2020 St Kilda transferred the license ownership of the team to Sandringham, who assumed commercial and operational management of the team.[59][60] In 2024 the club announced the Southern Saints brand would be discontinued and the team would be renamed Sandringham, aligning it with the men's side.[61] Despite the St Kilda-Sandringham affiliation ending in the VFL in 2025, the alignment between the two clubs in the VFLW remains in place.
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
↑ Gallagher, Breanna (5 December 2013). "Saints and Sandy re-align". St Kilda Football Club. Archived from the original on 17 December 2024. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
Known as the Victorian Football Association (VFA) from 1877–1996
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