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. 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.
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. 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. The Zebras' home ground is and almost always has been the
Beach RoadcOval, 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 Road 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. – 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. A
Rec Footy competition is also played at the ground.
AFL affiliations 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. 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. 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. This led to Sandringham establishing a partnership with
Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) club
Hampton Rovers. The affiliation was temporarily extended for the
2016 VFL season, before a new rolling affiliation deal with no fixed term was signed, to begin in
2017. 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. 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. However, at the 2025 rookie draft, which was held in November 2024, this did not occur. The affiliation agreement ended following the
2025 VFL season. In 2026, Sandringham will field a standalone team in the VFL, but the affiliation will remain in place in the VFLW.
Women's football 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. 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. Despite the St Kilda-Sandringham affiliation ending in the VFL in 2025, the alignment between the two clubs in the VFLW remains in place. ==Honours==