When Sandringham decided to become a standalone VFL program in 2026, Werribee was the club it modelled its build on.
It's only fitting, then, that the Bees were their first scalp since ending a 16-year alignment with St Kilda.
President Nick Johnstone was calling it the best moment in his 12 years involved with the club post-game. The excitement was infectious.
“Anything's possible now we've gotten going, it's absolutely amazing,” Johnstone told Zero Hanger.
That the Zebras won despite a significant gulf in experience, without their skipper and after trailing by 34 points at halftime added Hollywood pizzazz to a game that will long be fabled by their passionate supporters.
“I'm so proud of our club. What a moment for everyone who has been part of the ride,” Johnstone said.
Sandringham stormed home, kicking the only eight goals of the second half to run over the top of a stunned Werribee.
It follows a gritty second half against Port Melbourne Round 1's 14-point loss, which kept the Zebras in the contest until the dying stages.
Word quickly spread in VFL circles of Sandringham's pre-season fitness focus, and the results have been clear across the first fortnight.
“My mandate to (high performance manager) Tom Laumets when I called him up was ‘I want to be the fittest team in the comp' and he's an ex-player so he understands when to push and when to back off. Most of the work was done in pre-season and he deserves a lot of credit,” coach Daniel Ward told Zero Hanger.
The ball started zinging in the second half after a tougher first half, which suited the Zebras' prime movers.
Following a Round 1 result where they were punished on turnover, plenty were consigned to a similar storyline as Sandringham again butchered the footy early.
But the Zebras, sans any big names or significant VFL experience, learned the lessons from last week, drew on their culture and rode the support at Trevor Barker Beach Oval.
“Our tackling numbers were high, we were having a crack, but when we had the ball, we were turning the footy over or being quick with our decisions so we had to build it up a little bit more especially in this breeze and wait for our numbers to get (forward) and that's the best we've carried out instruction,” Ward said of the comeback.
Dan Pinter played a last quarter for the ages. Four of his 12 clearances came after the last break; he gave the Zebras the lead approaching stoppage time; laid a goal-saving tackle moments later; then set up Leon Alao who kicked the sealer.
The Zebras' standout of the first fortnight, Pinter's resilience to keep showing up after being cut by North Melbourne and Frankston during pre-season in recent years is one of many great stories of triumph attached to Sandy's first win, but none are better than Alao's.
The St Kida Next Generation Academy graduate has been on the periphery of Sandringham's squad for the past five seasons, finally getting a contract mid-way through last year and making his debut last week.
After all of that adversity, no wonder he was so desperate to seize his big moment.
“He got one of the biggest roars when he made the list,” chief executive Mark Wheeler told Zero Hanger.
“His level of commitment and wellbeing over that time would have been stretched but to finally make it after that is amazing. We've got some amazing stories.”
Captain Blake Watson was absent with a hamstring injury, Kynan Brown is sidelined for at least the next two months after a syndesmosis injury last week and Callum Smith is yet to debut as he looks to overcome a pre-season foot setback.
The Zebras were therefore forced to play with a makeshift midfield and even some players post game were left wondering how the heck they pulled that off.
Leading that engine room was Nathan Philactides, whose stats read: 28 disposals, one goal, six tackles, five clearances.
Not since playing junior local footy has the Box Hill recruit played in the middle, but he showed glimpses when thrown into the midfield late in Round 1 and has given Ward an easy decision about what to do with him going forward.
“I'll tell you one thing, Philactides won't be going back for a while, he's really strong at the contest and his ability to put pressure on and then get out of traffic was impressive,” the coach enthused.
“We lost Brodie Findlay as our ruck, so Pinter had to ruck 90 per cent of it as a 20-year-old kid who's a key forward, and with a lot of mids out, Philactides and Noah Yze had to play on-ball, (Andreas) Stefanakis played in there too, so a lot of boys had to play different roles and stepped up, but I'm really proud of them.”
Stand-in skipper Ethan Williams and vice captain Mitch Ryan also earned praise from the coach for their efforts.
Since going standalone, the uptick of support has been clear to the naked eye and Johnstone confirmed the Zebras have record membership numbers.
Creating a home fortress at Trevor Barker Beach Oval was an immediate priority to encourage fans to return, and the first fortnight of the season will only amplify the excitement.
“The amount of support we have got from the local community has been amazing,” Wheeler said.
“The big thing for me was hearing the song as we ran out last week, there was a bit of history in that moment and hearing the song at the end of the game last week was another piece of history.
“The culture itself is one thing we definitely wanted to build on. It's your club, it's our club, we wanted everyone to buy-in to it and they set some of the rules and some of the culture is about them.
“The club has pillars we work off but our young players in the male and female team are setting that culture.
“It's about the enjoyment of being here. We're going back to our roots and our history. Every time we go out there, we're representing bayside.”
There was a palpable and genuine buzz about the squad post-game when they shared in the spills of the celebration with supporters.
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As well as fans embracing the club and the footy department controlling key decisions, a notable change in the off-season has been the togetherness of the squad, which Ward and the coaching staff have facilitated.
“The attitude has been amazing, even when you come to training and see how pumped up they all are. We've got a great coaching group that are united and the bond between the players in a short period of time has been quite amazing to witness,” Johnstone said.
“You have a connection and a really different vibe being stand-alone now because you all train together and you just feel that, the scenes in the rooms after the game was incredible.
“Before the game, there was a really great atmosphere and our community love it. We had over 2000 here last week. We represent the whole of Bayside and we relish that.
“'Wardy's' hard-edged, gives honest feedback and wants to win.
“We told ‘Wardy' at the start of the year that we're not going to talk about wins and losses, we're going to talk about culture and from that, the wins will hopefully look after themselves.”
Saturday certainly suggested that wins will be a by-product of the foundations the club is setting on and off the field.
The Zebras hit the road for the first time in Round 3, with a Good Friday trip to Brisbane.
