Recent seasons have been tough going for the Sebastopol footy club. The Burras' senior side hasn't made the finals since they suffered a heartbreaking eight-point loss to Melton in the Ballarat league grand final in 2000.

And they went into Saturday's clash with top side North Ballarat City having not won a game since round eight, 2012.

"I think it's been a lot tougher for the players than for the committee members," said Sebastopol president Chris Parker, who has been involved with the club for more than three decades.

"We've got a pretty hard-working committee, and we're certainly doing all we can to get back some success on the field. But we're particularly proud of our tremendous bunch of resilient players who have stuck with us."

Even though Sebastopol was expected to cop a heavy defeat from North Ballarat City, there was merriment aplenty inside the social room at the club's home ground, the Marty Busch Reserve.

Old ties were renewed as the Burras celebrated the 40-year anniversary of the senior and reserves premierships they won in 1975.

All but half a dozen of the players who won those flags were expected to attend the reunion, with tall tales the order of the day.

"It's always good to hear some facts and a bit of fiction as well," Parker said in the lead-up to the event.

Back in '75, Sebastopol was part of a district-level competition known as the Ballarat and Bacchus Marsh FL. The Burras, who had previously won senior flags in 1965, '67 and '69, were considered a powerhouse of the competition.

Under the coaching of Brian McGuane, the father of Collingwood great Mick McGuane, Sebastopol took on Dunnstown in the 1975 grand final.

The game remains famous among local footy aficionados because of a timekeeping error that almost cost McGuane's men the premiership.

The drama began when the final siren sounded 10 minutes early, with Sebastopol six goals up.

As the team's assistant coach Paul Stapleton recalled in the Ballarat Courier this week, Burras supporters immediately stormed the field while swigging beer from longnecks.

"We thought we had won," Stapleton said. "We had to go back on, and Dunnstown kicked four quick goals."

The Sebastopol boys eventually regained their composure and won 17.17 (119) to 14.12 (105).

A number of changes to the structure of football in the region resulted in the club stepping up and joining the Ballarat league in 1978. But the Burras have made just two senior grand finals since making the move.

The first of those came in 1985 when they copped a hiding from a North Ballarat team that would eventually win five premierships on the trot.

While the loss to the Roosters was disappointing, Sebastopol's army of supporters was left devastated by the defeat at the hands of Melton in 2000.

The Burras enjoyed a fairytale run to the grand final, surging through the finals after finishing fifth on the ladder. And they had more scoring shots than their opponents in the big game, but were beaten 8.4 (52) to 6.8 (44).

A mass exodus of players in the lead-up to the following season saw the team tumble back down the ladder, and they have struggled to climb out of the bottom two ever since.

There were hopes that things might improve last year when former Collingwood star Phil Carman was appointed senior coach.

But Carman was sacked with three home and away games remaining, and the team finished the season without a win.

The latest push to revive Sebastopol's fortunes is being driven by new senior coach Shane Snibson, who came through the club's junior teams before making it as far as Carlton's supplementary list in 1995. More recently, Snibson spent six years on the coaching staff with North Ballarat's VFL team.

He has already had a big impact on Sebastopol's young squad.

"They hang on every word he says," Parker said. "The boys understand that the things they can learn from Shane will not only help them with their footy, but also help the club."

Yet Sebastopol remains without a win under its new boss. The Burras came closest to breaking through last weekend when they jumped out to a 35-point lead against Melton South.

But Snibson's charges faded as the game wore on, and they lost by 66 points after conceding nine goals in the last quarter.

"We went from having our best quarter for the year in the first quarter to our worst quarter for the year in the last," Parker said.

Looking ahead, however, Parker is adamant that the outlook for Sebastopol is bright. "We're looking to improve further this year," he said. "Then we believe we can make some significant inroads next year."

SEBASTOPOL FNC

The Burras have won 13 senior premierships in total: 1920, 1929, 1936, 1939, 1950-51-52-53-54, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1975.
The town of Sebastopol had its own local government for 131 years, before the old Borough of Sebastopol became part of the City of Ballarat in 1994.