Sandhurst Football Club will next weekend mark a special milestone in its history. WHEN the 50th anniversary of the Sandhurst Football Club's formation came around in 1911, the club, then nicknamed the Cardinals, was in recess. It had not fielded a team in the Bendigo league since 1900 and would not do so again until after the First World War.

A century on, however, it's a very different story. Next weekend the club will be abuzz with activity when it celebrates its sesquicentenary with a home game against Kangaroo Flat at the Queen Elizabeth Oval, and a gala ball at the All Seasons Hotel.

''We're a bit scared because we've got about 700 people coming at the moment,'' said former Sandhurst player and long-serving committeeman Danny Ellis. ''We thought we might have got 500, but to get that many is massive. We're very close to having to knock people back, which would be a bit of a bugger. It'll be just massive.''

Sandhurst has achieved plenty since it came out of recess. Its tally of 26 Bendigo league premierships is second only to Eaglehawk, while the number of VFL/AFL players it has produced - 63 at last count - is believed to be unsurpassed by any bush footy club.

The list includes some modern-day stars such as Geelong captain Joel Selwood and St Kilda midfielder Nick Dal Santo. It also features Carlton premiership defender Michael Sexton and ex-Cats rover and AFL talent guru Kevin ''Shifter'' Sheehan. Sexton and Sheehan are among the many former Sandhurst players heading back to Bendigo in six days' time for the big party.

The Sandhurst Football Club was formed on June 3, 1861, which makes it the fifth-oldest Australian rules club after Melbourne (1858), Geelong, Castlemaine (1859) and Ballarat (1860). It also means the club is actually celebrating its 151st birthday this year.

''Basically, the QEO was being redone last year and we thought we might have been off it for the whole season,'' Ellis explained. ''So we thought we'd put it back a year until our home ground was back in action and we could celebrate properly.''

Sandhurst's era of glory came not long after it emerged from recess. Under the leadership of Bob McCaskill, who headed to the club after playing 36 games for Richmond, it played in 12 grand finals, winning nine. McCaskill's coaching stint, which ran from 1926 to 1940, included a run of six consecutive premierships from 1929.

Around the same time Sandhurst developed a strong connection to Marist Brothers College (now part of Catholic College Bendigo) and the affiliation provided the club with a bounty of talented youngsters. Graham Arthur, who went on to captain Hawthorn during most of the 1960s, and Geoff Southby, who became a star defender at Carlton, were among the players who followed that path.

A fitness fanatic who specialised in passionate pre-match speeches, McCaskill left Sandhurst to head back to the VFL where he helped turn around the fortunes of both North Melbourne and Hawthorn.

In McCaskill's absence, Sandhurst lost four straight grand finals in the 1950s - one by a point to South Bendigo - before it re-emerged as a power in the '70s after stealing gun full-forward Ron Best from Golden Square. Best led Sandhurst, by now known as the Maroons, to the 1973 and '77 flags. The success continued until the early 1980s, but the past three decades have been much tougher. The Dragons, as the club is now nicknamed, have won one premiership since 1983. That came in 2004 when they survived a dramatic finals series that included a double-extra-time win over Gisborne in the second semi-final. Since then Sandhurst has often made the finals but competing with such clubs as Golden Square, which had won 30 straight games before it lost in round two of this season, has proved beyond its reach. ''If anything, it comes down to finances,'' said Ellis. ''We've always had really good juniors, but our capacity to raise money and top up our list [isn't great].''

Under the guidance of Tony Graham, Sandhurst's senior team began this year poorly. The Dragons narrowly lost their opening game but won their next five matches, in the process boosting the morale of everyone around the club just in time for its biggest party.

Yesterday Sandhurst made it six straight wins when it defeated bottom side Kyneton, which has this year improved greatly under the coaching of local hero and former AFL star Nathan Thompson.

A huge crowd will be on hand for next Saturday's clash with Kangaroo Flat, and the Sandhurst boys will be sporting their heritage jumper, specially produced for this season. The guernsey features an old-style SFC monogram and a list of the club's premiership years running down its left-hand side. ''One of our young blokes did the design and we might wear it ongoing it's come up so well,'' Ellis said.

Then it will be off to the All Seasons, where every surviving football and netball premiership player will be presented to the 700-strong crowd. The oldest expected attendees are Jack English and Max Elliott, both aged in their 80s, who were part of the club's hat-trick of flags in the late 1940s. Sandhurst will then induct 20 people into its new Hall of Fame. To avoid offending anyone, no best team of the past 150 years will be named, although there will no doubt be many informal debates about such matters.

Next Sunday a museum that pays tribute to both the club's footballers and netballers will be opened by long-time supporter Richard Jones. The star attraction will be the club's premiership photos, which have been restored thanks to a $20,000 grant from Heritage Victoria.

By Adam McNicol

Article first appeared The Sunday Age June 3, 2012