Sandy Bay Football Club
| Sandy Bay | ||
|---|---|---|
| Names | ||
| Full name | Sandy Bay District Football Club | |
| Nickname(s) | Seagulls | |
| Motto | "The Game Above All" | |
| Club song: "Seagulls, Seagulls, That's Our Name!" | ||
| Club details | ||
| Founded | 1944 | |
| Dissolved | 1997 | |
| Colours | ||
| Competition |
Tasmanian Football League (1st. season: 1945) |
|
| Ground(s) | Queenborough Oval (capacity: 4,000) | |
| North Hobart Oval (capacity: 18,000) | ||
| Uniforms | ||
|
||
The Sandy Bay Football Club was an Australian rules football club based in Sandy Bay, Tasmania. The team participated in the Tasmanian Football League from 1945 to 1997.
The club was founded in November 1944 as a result of a meeting called by the late Bill Barwick at Wrest Point Riviera (now Wrest Point Casino). With World War Two in its final stages it became clear that some former TANFL clubs would not survive and as a result, the League's Constitution was amended to provide for district football. In 1945 four clubs, Sandy Bay, North Hobart, New Town and Hobart, took part in the revamped competition.
Sandy Bay adopted the colours of Royal Blue and White, the playing jumper was Royal Blue and White with a white seagull on the breast. This was used by the club between 1945–1966 and from 1967 onwards, the club wore a Blue and White vertical striped playing jumper. Sandy Bay was given permission by the Hobart City Council to use Queenborough Oval in Sandy Bay as its home ground and a weatherboard changeroom was erected on the site of where the Graeme Mackey Stand and Pavilion would be built twenty years later. Sandy Bay's emblem was the Seagull, generally thought to be named after all the seagulls that hung around the waterfront suburb where the club was located.
Sandy Bay participated in the Tasmanian Football League with a strong degree of success in its first three decades in the competition, participating in fifteen TFL Grand Finals between 1945–1978 (including eight consecutive Grand Finals from 1971–1978) and winning the Tasmanian State Premiership twice in 1946 and 1971. But after losing the 1979 TANFL Preliminary Final by 19 points to Clarence, the club's era of dominance was over. Another problem looming for Sandy Bay was that during their remarkable period of sustained success during the 1970s, the demographic of their area had begun to change to a more upmarket occupancy and as a result, their supporter base withered away badly during this time. Home games at Queenborough Oval reflected this trend where their average home attendances had fallen from a 3,823-average in 1970 to just a 995-average by 1980.
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