Sandringham Football Club

The Sandringham Football Club, nicknamed the Zebras, is an Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Sandringham. It currently competes in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and the VFL Women's (VFLW).

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.

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.

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. 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. All four clubs competed in the Metropolitan Amateur Football Association (MAFA) for the 1927 season. On 15 August 1927, four other clubs merged to form the Sandringham Football Club.

On 17 February 1928, Sandringham, Sandringham District and the Sandringham United Football Club amalgamated to form a new Sandringham Football Club. This was, however, effectively a continuation of the Sandringham Amateurs. The club entered two teams in the MAFA and one team in the Federal Football Association (FFA) junior competition for the 1928 season. 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.

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. In January 1929, the Sandringham Council supported a bid from an (apparently new) senior Sandringham Football Club to enter the VFA. The bid was successful, and Sandringham was accepted into the Association on 4 February 1929.

Despite the admission, the club still faced a challenge prior to its first game. 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. 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. Ultimately, Sandringham Council choose to allow the Amateurs to continue using the ground. Sandringham's VFA reserves team instead played its home games at Tulip Street Reserve. The club wore the colours of gold, black and blue, taken from Sandringham Amateurs, Black Rock and Hampton.

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.