Sandringham Zebras news

From Bayside Leader and www.localfooty.com.au
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Lindsay Gilbee celebrates a goal for the Western Bulldogs.

RUMOUR turned to fact late this afternoon when Sandringham announced Lindsay Gilbee as its new senior coach.

The former Western Bulldogs star’s name had been linked with the position pretty much from the time Paul Hudson declared he would be standing down after two years and taking a break from coaching.

Gilbee is a development coach with the Sandy’s VFL affiliate St Kilda and has been with the club since the end of 2013.

In that time he has been a regular at Zebra matches.

“As a St Kilda development coach he has worked with our coaches and players over the past three years,’’ Sandringham general manager John Mennie said.

“Lindsay is respected by everyone at the Zebras and we look forward to him guiding the club to a very successful season.’’

Gilbee said he was looking forward to his first senior coaching position.

“I’m really excited for the opportunity to coach the Zebras and continue working with some of the young players in the Saints and Sandringham system,” he said.

Brilliantly skilled and one of the best kicks in the game, Gilbee made 206 appearances for the Western Bulldogs from 2001-2012.

 

Sandringham too strong for Port Melbourne

From The Age
Reported by Brent Diamond
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Sandringham had the answers when it mattered most against Port Melbourne to win an intense elimination final by 45 points at North Port Oval on Sunday.
 
Dylan Weickhardt of Sandringham handballs during the VFL elimination final match between Port Melbourne and Sandringham.

 

Dylan Weickhardt of Sandringham handballs during the VFL elimination final match between Port Melbourne and Sandringham. Photo: Graham Denholm/AFL Media

 

The Zebras, who meet reigning premier Williamstown in next Saturday's semi-final at North Port Oval, appeared galvanised after a turbulent finish to the home and away season, in which they lost six of their last seven matches.

From the Sunday Age
Reported by Brent Diamond
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Sandringham are "adamant" they will continue to field a development team next season, despite being set to sign a new deal with AFL affiliate St Kilda in the "coming weeks".

Zebras general manager John Mennie said, despite speculation, his team would not be swayed into dropping their development squad team, whereas some other clubs – including Coburg, Casey and Frankston – may look to do so. 

Saintly Zebra: St Kilda ruckman Jason Holmes in action for Sandringham.
Saintly Zebra: St Kilda ruckman Jason Holmes in action for Sandringham. Photo: Ken Irwin

Mennie firmly believes that negotiations with St Kilda have not included dropping their development team, which allows Sandringham increased depth in the case of injuries to Saints players. 

From the Herald Sun
Reported by Paul Amy
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THE 2015 VFL season kicks off on Friday with Werribee hosting Geelong under lights. Leader sports editor Paul Amy rounds up each club’s ins and outs.

BOX HILL HAWKS

Coach: Marco Bello

Last year: runner-up to Footscray Bulldogs

In: Cadeyn Williams (Richmond), Jack Sandric (Hobart City), Lochie Adey, James Handley (Blackburn), Matthew Burt, Chris Jones, Liam Kidd, Matthew Traynor (Eastern Ranges), Billy Murphy, Sam Switkowski (Northern Knights), James Sullivan (Tatura), Patrick Dillon (Donvale), Xavier Dimasi (Assumption/Calder Cannons), Ben Fitzpatrick (Korumburra/Bena), Dalton Graham (Sandringham).

Out: Luke Andrews, Callan Burns, Corey Cassidy, Sam Cust, Jackson Eade, Tom Goodwin, Jake Kalanj, Tom Miles, Xavier Murphy, Matt Northe, Nick Papadopoulos, Kalem Post, Michael Thompson, Brandon Wood.

The verdict: the Hawks have lost top-line midfielders in Xavier Murphy and Luke Andrew as well as the emerging Brandon Wood. But they’ve picked up former Tiger Cadeyn Williams and have good young players coming through in support of senior men Sam Iles, David Mirra, Marc Lock and Liam Tobin. Premiers in 2013 and runners-up last year, there’s no reason to think there will be a slackening of standards.

Player watch: Mitch O’Donnell. He’s as hard as a coffin nail and he’ll be granted more opportunity after an excellent pre-season.

Celebrating season 2014 with the Casey Scorpions and A Positive Move

Click on read more for a full club by club report.

From The Age
Reported by Brent Diamond
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St Kilda's VFL affiliate Sandringham has appointed Saints assistant Paul Hudson as its coach for the next two seasons in the last of the coaching reshuffle in the VFL ranks.

Hudson will take over from Saints development coach Simon McPhee, who will concentrate on his role at St Kilda next season after stepping down, despite leading the Zebras to a breakthrough finals berth.

Hudson is familiar with the Zebras after playing a match-day role with the prominent VFL club over the past three seasons. The former AFL forward is expected to take the alignment into its last era with St Kilda planning to field a standalone team from 2017.

Zebras general manager John Mennie said Hudson had already become a valuable asset to Sandringham.

VFL alignment ‘working well’: McPhee

From the St Kilda FC website
Reported by Tom Morris
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SANDRINGHAM coach and St Kilda development coach Simon McPhee believes the alignment between the two clubs has been a success so far this year, following an impressive start to the season in which the Zebras have lost just two games.

Sandringham won four of its first five games this year, with a draw against Box Hill the only minor hiccup in what was an outstanding response to a lacklustre 2013 campaign.

“We were very happy with the way the team was playing early. The first month was great with everyone up and running,” McPhee told SAINTS.com.au this week.

“We didn’t have too many injuries and our side was full of quality players pushing for higher honours.”

However St Kilda’s spate of casualties began to take its toll before the bye last weekend and the effects filtered through to Sandringham against Footscray and Werribee in consecutive losses earlier this month.

“We lost our way a little bit in the last couple of weeks and we’ve had a few selection issues because we lost so many players to injury,” McPhee said.

Zebras zap past off-target Dolphins


Reported by Paul Amy
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FRANKSTON had more forward entries and 10 more scoring shots, 32 to 22.

But Sandringham won the count that mattered, on the scoreboard at the final siren, in the Round 1 VFL match at Kars St on Saturday.

In an encouraging season-opening effort from the Zebras, they triumphed 17.5 (107) to 11.21 (87) in a game in which momentum swung back and forth like a pendulum.

Sandy were sluggish in the first quarter, struggling to take the ball across their half forward line, and should have trailed by more than 16 points at quarter time.

From Bayside Leader
Reported by Paul Amy
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SUPPORTERS formed a line extending from the fence of the Trevor Barker Oval to the changerooms, clapping, cheering and whistling.

The Sandringham players they were showering in admiration wore a satisfied glow, knowing they'd pulled off a splendid victory over the Northern Blues.

At the 20-minute mark of the third quarter of Sunday's match, the Blues went 38 points clear when Luke Mitchell kicked his third goal.

But Sandy turned their desperate position into a 13-point win that will long live in the memory.

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