END OF AN ERA by Ice Station Zebra

Sandringham’s 2008 campaign came to an end at Trevor Barker Beach Oval on Sunday when it went down by 10 points to second placed North Ballarat in a dour, hard fought game played in bleak conditions, which saw a combination of cold, biting winds, rain and even hail. This dark and sombre scenario provided the perfect backdrop for the end of the Zebras' dismal season that saw them missing out on the September action for the first time since 2001.

In truth, Sandy's season effectively ended just after midday on Saturday when eighth placed Frankston proved too strong for Geelong in the Skilled Stadium curtain raiser making it impossible for the Zebras to break into the VFL top eight but coach Andy Lovell pointed out that there was still some incentive for his charges to play well.

"We still had a bit to play for, Chris Lamb's last game and the last game of the Sandringham-Melbourne alignment," Lovell told reporters after the game.

Sandringham lined up without multiple Jim "Frosty" Miller Medallist (for top VFL goal kicker) Nick Sautner after he accepted a one match suspension arising from a report in the first quarter of last week's match at Frankston. Fortunately, his nearest rival for goal kicking honours, Werribee captain James Podsiadly, had fallen one goal short of his 74 for the season a day earlier giving Sautner his eighth "Frosty". However, without their spearhead, the Zebras were always going to find it difficult to score and they managed only a meagre seven goals for the day.

As has often been the pattern this year, they allowed the visitors to get the jump on them early. There were plenty of stoppages and throw ins as a result of scrappy conditions and North Ballarat were able to adapt much better to the conditions to hold the early ascendency.

David Gallagher managed to kick his team's first goal and he could easily have kicked another while Ezra Poyas missed one that he normally would have swallowed. Sandy lifted late in the term with skipper Peter Summers, Shane Valenti and Chad Liddell in everything but scoring was a difficult task and the Roosters held a commanding 20-point lead at the first break given the difficult conditions.

The second quarter was a real arm wrestle with North Ballarat adding a couple of handy goals on the scoreboard while a couple of easy misses didn't help the Sandringham cause. Chad Liddell continued to win plenty of the ball while Matthew Bate started to get into the match in an effort to lift the team. Youngster Shane Tregear was lively up forward while second year player Rennie Gilchrist was playing his best senior game for the club. By half time, Sandringham had barely managed to peg back North Ballarat's lead and its prospects for the rest of the game were not looking good.

The visitors had the scoring end in the third quarter but the difficult conditions worsened and it became even harder to score goals. Gallagher continued to work hard, Summers was still in and under at every opportunity and Lynden Dunn and Valenti increased their work rates. The deficit at the final break was now 25 points but the Zebras were determined to have a dip as their season was slowly slipping away.

The final quarter in which the team scored 2 goals 7 was the story of Sandringham's disappointing year. The club has lost eight games by less than three goals and often, these defeats have been self-inflicted coming as a result of poor kicking for goal. It's been a case of close on many occasions without being able to snatch victory. When Dunn had the opportunity late in the game to narrow the margin to four points with a shot at goal from 35 metres out, he was off target and this typified the season for the hapless Zebras whose percentage of 118.46 at year's end was much better than that of fourth placed Werribee.

Former captain Chad Liddell was great all day for his team as was David Gallagher who has played well since coming back from a serious knee injury. Bate put in a classy display in both midfield and in defence to finish with 27 touches and Tregear, Brett Liddell and Gilchrist gave fans a taste of what the club's young talent can produce in the future.

And so (almost) ended the Zebras' successful and memorable era of affiliation with the Demons after nine years and four premierships and a great number of fond memories. Almost, because the Zebra reserves had a fantastic win over Frankston in the elimination final and will now play Box Hill at Port Melbourne on Sunday starting at 10.20am.

Sandringham 2.2.14 4.5.29 5.6.36 7.13.55

North Ballarat 5.4.34 7.6.48 8.13.61 8.17.65

Goals

Sandringham Newton Tregear 2 Bate Gallagher Gilchrist

North Ballarat Grima Smith 2 Chester Greig Roach Wundke

Best

Sandringham C Liddell Gallagher Tregear Bate Gilchrist B Liddell

North Ballarat Swallow Sharkey Moloney Searl Greig Chester

Reserves:

Sandringham 3.2.20 4.3.27 9.6.60 15.9.99

Frankston 3.4.22 6.5.41 7.8.50 11.10.76

Goals

Sandringham Gileno 5 Eaton 3 Cleeve Gilder Hardiman Lyall Monaghan Summons Weetra

Frankston Barker 3 Lloyd Murray 2 McCall Potts White Willis

Best

Sandringham Gilder Gileno Johnson M Johnston Williams Summons

Frankston Willis Dunne Stone Gill Lloyd Drake

Report

Frankston Karl Lombardozzi for using abusive language towards an umpire Chris Oliver for tripping Jake Williams by foot.

Just to clarify the issue of eligibility for the reserves in finals. If someone has played 8 senior games during the season, he must have played 6 reserves games to qualify.

The following players qualify:-

Kyle Cheney - will play,

Jack Grimes - unlikely to play because, having played with the MFC the club will be anxious to get him into the 2009 pre season asap,

Tom McNamara - has a hamstring injury and has been ruled out at least for this week,

Jake Spencer - ruled out because of glandular fever,

Isaac Weetra - will play

Trent Zomer - will play

Isaac Weetra - will play

Trent Zomer - will play

Sorry about that.

Jack Grimes - unlikely to play because, having played with the MFC the club will be anxious to get him into the 2009 pre season asap,

Baz..i dont see that that necessarily follows.. For a player who has had resticted play time this year I would think some finals time would be ideal. They can manage his preseason if required. Experience..is experience !!