JCZEBRA AND THE PIG - A BELATED TRIBUTE by Whispering Jack

The Victorian Football Association was formed in 1877 and was the major controlling body for football in its formative years. Twenty years later, the stronger sides in the competition withdrew to form the Victorian Football League which ultimately became the nation's premier football competition, now known as the Australian Football League.

However, the VFA continued as a strong, viable and at times thriving competition until late in the 20th century when a number of clubs fell on hard times as a result of the increasing commercialisation of sport in this country. The VFA came under the control of the AFL and in 1996 its name was changed to the Victorian Football League. Four years later, the VFL was merged with AFL reserves competition and a number of AFL clubs made alliances with existing clubs in the VFL. The most successful of these was the union between Melbourne and Sandringham, which began in 2000 and ended last week.

It was through the union that I was fortunate enough to meet a couple of real gentlemen who lived, ate and breathed the Sandringham Football Club. John Carroll and Brian McKenna introduced themselves to me via an invitation made on the Demonland website to visit them at the Sandringham Social Club for drinks in appreciation for some articles that had been written about the Zebras.

My son and I were expecting an official delegation from the club but John and Brian were not exactly what we expected. They were two down to earth blokes who loved Sandy and both had a rather loose affiliation with the club which seemed to start and end with the pulling of the odd ale in the social club. I'll never forget the way they both raised their eyebrows in unison when we ordered our diet cokes while they imbibed in the slightly stronger beverages of their choice. John dismissively described the "stuff" we were drinking as "lolly water."

The pair always watched their team from the same spot in the forward pocket at Trevor Barker Beach Oval and we were invited to join them there "whenever there was a game on." And so we soon became friends and companions at the matches.

John had such a strong passion for history and was working on writing a history of the Zebras. He posted regularly on the site under the name of "jczebra", Brian as "The Pig" and both of them also looked after the Sandringham website. They loved talking about the beauty and the glory of the VFA in "the old days" when the ground would be "packed to the rafters" and they were such strong supporters of the Zebras that they wouldn't hear any criticism of their players. jczebra once boldly predicted that one day Chris Bryan would "make it in the AFL". Bryan was a struggling young ruckman with the Sandy reserves at the time.

I learned in a short space of time how much this unlikely pair epitomised the VFL with its suburban grounds that were open to the elements and where you could lean forward and almost touch the players you were supporting. jczebra introduced us to the famous burraburger at Port Melbourne and the best I could do was to help him out with his historical writing and some advice on how to carry out some of the research for his history.

John was also a bit of a trickster and he would often lean over the fence and give his advice to opposition forwards lining up for goal.

"Left post, sunshine," he would offer and when the ball would inevitably drift the wrong way for a point, he would wink at us mischievously and add,

"Ya shoulda' listened to me, sunshine."

The alliance tasted instant success with Melbourne rising from near the bottom of the ladder to play off against Essendon in the 2000 AFL Grand Final while Sandringham's seniors and reserves both won premiership flags a week earlier. For the rest of the journey, the Zebras tasted more premiership glory in 2004, 2005 and 2006 and only missed out on making the finals in 2001 and 2008. The Demons made the finals in 2002 and 2004-2006.

The clubs also used each other as sources of playing talent during this time. Matthew Warnock, Stefan Martin and Shane Valenti are current Demons who started with Sandy while Guy Rigoni and Chris Lamb moved on to the Zebras when their AFL careers ended. Both played in premiership teams with the Zebras. Of course, a number of different Melbourne players participated in the four Sandringham premierships during the time of the alliance and both clubs also grieved together when Troy Broadbridge was lost in the tsunami.

The two clubs are taking different paths in the future but the nine seasons when they were bound together in their union will not be forgotten and the memories will not always be of what happened on the playing fields.

Unfortunately, jczebra and the pig missed out on the club's golden era under the alliance because neither of them enjoyed good health. Pig went first and I'll never forget the message jczebra sent me to advise that his good mate had collapsed and been taken off life support. John lasted another year and suffered the same fate passing away a sad and lonely man at the start of 2004. How they would have savoured every single glorious moment of each of those three successive grand final victories?

And how will they feel early next autumn when they look down on their patch of grass in the pocket beneath the social club at TBBO and find that their friends have left for (what for them are greener pastures) Casey Fields?

Nice piece Jack.

Well written Jack

I was most fortunate to meet them both and stand with them on the forward flank.

This piece reminds me of their welcome to me and their humour. They were greatly missed.

Thanks WJ for a fitting tribute at the end of our assocation with Sandy to two great Sandy men and wonderful companions.

Nice tribute WJ. How sad they had missed the three-peat by Sandringham.

Great piece Jack. They were both great guys, with an enormous passion for the Sandringham FC.

One of the greatest things about the Sandringham alignment has been the people we've met and watched footy with along the way. Hopefully that'll continue in somewhere else next year. And with a bit of lack we'll get a "reunion game" down at Trevor Barker Oval.

Great piece Jack. They were both great guys, with an enormous passion for the Sandringham FC.

One of the greatest things about the Sandringham alignment has been the people we've met and watched footy with along the way. Hopefully that'll continue in somewhere else next year. And with a bit of lack we'll get a "reunion game" down at Trevor Barker Oval.

I didn't know these guys but what a wonderful tribute!

Lovely piece Jack.

A great read, thankyou for sharing that with us.

Good read. Wish the Sandy boys well but my hatred for the saints will cloud my vision.

Redandbluethruandthru has been banned for 28 days. He will be banned for good if he is as poorly behaved again.

His post and all reference to it have been deleted.

Fan

Good work Fan.

Such a great tribute should never be tarnished by idiots, especially when they behave as such.

Very moving read, reminds you of old suburban footy!

Good work Fan.

Such a great tribute should never be tarnished by idiots, especially when they behave as such.

Very moving read, reminds you of old suburban footy!

And such a pity that the fool didn't even take in the content or understand its meaning. For those who don't appreciate the benefits of a good alliance to our club, perhaps they could consider this line which indicates one of them ... "Matthew Warnock, Stefan Martin and Shane Valenti are current Demons who started with Sandy."

Thanks to everyone for their kind words and support over the years particularly Andy, WJ and people like Ice Station Zebra who filled in for me on occasions when the Kingswood broke down or I couldn't do reports from the games for some other reason. Thanks also to the people at the Sandringham Football Club and the various supporters including the late John Carroll and Brian McKenna who have all been so helpful and forthcoming with their information and opinions over the years.

You might be aware that my wife Mavis, son Barry Junior and our dog Whistler are all moving north to take advantage of the warmer climate. We've both retired and Barry Junior has some exciting career opportunities in the cabaret field. If you're into TV you might catch a glimpse of him in a forthcoming episode of the new series The Strip (as long as the programme doesn't get cancelled in the interim).

Our other son Kevin Charles is staying on and has agreed to be one of Demonland's reporters if the mooted union with Casey Scorpions takes place. He was due to move into his new lodgings in the Cranbourne area last week but when he arrived there he discovered the doors had been shuttered up and some of the locals were roaming the streets wearing gas masks. As a result of this unnerving experience Kev has been looking for alternative accommodation and it looks like he'll be right for the start of the next pre season.

I myself will also be keeping an eye on Demonland but from a vantage point a lot further up north and I hope to be able to do a wrap up on the Sandy b & f coming up shortly and come back from time to time when I hear some news about the Dees, the Zebs or even the Scorps.

Finally some snippets from Sandy for those still interested:-

Skipper Peter Summers missed out by one vote on a JJ Liston Trophy win for VFL best and fairest. He finished with 15 votes. The unluckiest player in the competition however, was our own Shane Valenti who polled 13 votes from 10 games (he missed another 10 games while playing for the Demons) and he would certainly have won had he played a full season with the Zebras. Valenti was promoted from the rookie list initially to cover for David Neitz when he went onto the long term injury list.

Melbourne's long injury list was one of the reasons for Sandringham's fall from grace in 2008, the first time Sandringham has missed the finals since 2001. Zebras general manager John Mennie was quoted in the VFL Record last weekend as saying that the club was "hurt with the unusually high number of Melbourne players who suffered long-term injuries, including captain David Neitz, Jared Rivers, Brock McLean, Brent Moloney and Aaron Davey." The Zebras also paid "the ultimate price for not being able to win any of the nine games they lost by three goals or less", he said.

Andy Lovell has been reappointed as coach for season 2009 while Greg Hutchison, who this year coached St Kilda's old affiliate the Casey Scorpions (who bowed out of the finals last week), will remain with the Saints' coaching staff. No appointment has been made with regard to the Scorpions coaching position for next year.

Finally, and this will upset WJ and Scoop Junior in particular, dual Sandringham premiership defender Chris Lamb has announced his retirement and several other Zebra stalwarts are considering their futures.

We're settling the sale of our house tomorrow and will be on our way north at the weekend.

Thanks for all the memories, go Dees, go Zebs and (ahhr...) go Scorps?

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We're settling the sale of our house tomorrow and will be on our way north at the weekend.

Thanks for all the memories, go Dees, go Zebs and (ahhr...) go Scorps?

Cheers Bazza good luck on the weekend, thanks again for your detailed reports.

All the best for Chris Lamb for his future too.

Will miss BBB but look forward to reading the reports of KC.

( In some respect you are a wasted talent. )