VFL Match Report: Round 9 vs Frankston

25/05/2026

The inaugural St Andrews Beach Brewery Cup has headed back to Sandringham, as we claimed a thrilling come from behind victory over Frankston on the road in our Round 9 clash.

Travelling to Kinetic Stadium to face the Dolphins under lights, a number of Zebras came up clutch in the final term as we overcame a 22-point deficit to win 8.12 (60) to 6.16 (52) in front of a strong, vocal crowd on Saturday night.

A tense opening term saw just the one goal kicked between the two sides, and although it went the way of the Dolphins, who took a seven-point lead into the first break, we had plenty of players amongst the action.

Noah Yze looked threatening up forward, presenting a real challenge to the Frankston defence despite being unable to capitalise on the scoreboard, while both Brodie Findlay and Daniel Pinter were proving a formidable 1-2 punch in the ruck.

Jhett Haeata showed off his pace with a brilliant run-down tackle to foil a Frankston foray inside 50, while the likes of Lachie Riley and Darcy Chirgwin got to work at the coalface, extracting the ball from the contest to great effect.

Things started to pick up for us offensively in the second term as Jack Ferraro kicked our first major of the game, sneaking out the back of a pack after we generated repeat inside-50s, while Andreas Stefanakis found plenty of the ball, and used it well to bring teammates into the contest.

We soon hit the front for the first time in the game as a nice piece of link-up play saw Ferraro and Yze combine to find Pinter one-on-one with his opponent as the only two players inside forward 50, and the big man kicked truly from the set shot to hand us a one-point advantage.

The lead was doubled to two points as we headed into the rooms with a 2.8 (20) to 2.6 (18) lead at the main break, although it probably should have been a lot more, as we dominated territory in the second term without converting on the scoreboard.

It looked to have come back to bite us in the third term, as we went goalless and kicked just two behinds for the quarter, while Frankston was able to add three goals of their own, leaving us 19 points down at the final change.

The noise from the local crowd intensified dramatically as they sensed a potential win, with the drums and trombone being played wildly on the sidelines while coach Daniel Ward gave his three-quarter time address.

We started the term brightly as Willis Reidy nabbed the first of the final quarter to reduce the margin to 13 points, curling one through off his left within the first minute. The home side immediately replied with interest, pushing the margin out to a game-high 22 points with eight minutes gone.

It sparked something within us, though, and suddenly we began to find the fluency in attack that had been missing for much of the night.

Offensive pressure saw the Dolphins turn the ball over exiting their defensive 50, with Adrian Cole finding Riley 25 metres out, who snapped his first of the contest against his old side to give us a glimmer of hope as the deficit was cut to 15 points.

The ball bounced around between the arcs for nearly seven minutes following the next centre bounce, and while we were pressing hard, we needed someone to stand up and take their moment.

With three behinds to his name and a handful of ‘nearly’ moments, Yze put his hand up to be that man, breaking the deadlock with a brilliant 50 metre set shot for his first goal after clunking a contested mark over his opponent, bringing the margin back to single digits with nearly 20 minutes played in the final term, and the belief started to grow.

Our back six defended grimly to deny the Dolphins a major as they mounted a brief attack, but it was one-way traffic from there, as we managed to keep the ball living in our forward half of the ground.

The hard work paid off eventually as we continued to force stoppage after stoppage inside 50, with Pinter winning a hit out down to Kyle Cooper, who sucked in his opponent and spat a deft handball out to Chirgwin who sent it straight through the big sticks, dragging us to within a kick and sending the contingent of travelling fans into raptures.

But the defining moment of the game was yet to come.

We found ourselves with a stoppage inside 50 once more as the clock dwindled down, and it was Haeata who burst from the pack with pace only to be tripped by his opponent, earning the free kick 45 metres out tight against the boundary, with the Frankston members standing right behind him.

With the game seemingly on his boot, Haeata didn’t succumb to the pressure, keeping a calm head to split the middle before letting the crowd know all about it, and handing us the lead for the first time since half time with less than two minutes remaining.

Skipper Blake Watson iced what seemed like an impossible comeback shortly after, marking a high up-and-under ball on the paint of the 50 and coolly slotting the major to extend the lead to the eventual eight-point margin of victory and complete the fairytale finish, with the final five goals of the game coming from the Zebras.

The win, our third of the season so far, ensures we head into this week’s bye with momentum, and provides plenty of encouragement ahead of our next contest against ladder-leader Geelong on Saturday, June 6 at Wilson Storage Trevor Barker Beach Oval.

SCORES

SANDRINGHAM: 0.3, 2.8, 2.10, 8.12 (60)

Frankston: 1.4, 2.6, 5.11, 6.16 (52)

Goals: Yze, Watson, Riley, Reidy, Pinter, Haeata, Ferraro, Chirgwin

Visit the VFL website for full stats.