Frankston players line up for the national anthem before round one, 2021. Picture: AFL Photos

IT HAS been a long time coming, a milestone most people outside the Frankston Football Club thought might never arrive when it was dumped from the VFL for the 2017 season.

But Frankston is a club that refuses to take no for an answer, and the Dolphins have fought their way back from the brink of extinction to sit as a growing club with a future that appears as bright as the 1000 lux lights that now tower over Skybus Stadium.

They have an exciting young team that has already won more matches this year than any season since 2014, a record 1330 members and rising, and a reason to believe there are bigger and better things to come.

After that year fighting for their survival in 2017, followed by the COVID wipeout of 2020, the Dolphins have had to wait an extra two years to celebrate their 1000th VFA/VFL appearance, a milestone that finally arrives when they host Footscray under those brilliant new lights on Friday night.

It is the culmination of 55 years of blood, sweat and tears after deciding to step up from the Mornington Peninsula League in 1966, a controversial move club legend Bryan Mace, remembers all too well.

Mace, a life member of both Frankston and the VFL, remains the club's sole VFA senior premiership coach, winning a reserves flag in 1976 followed by the Holy Grail two years later, and served 35 years on the committee or as general manager until his retirement just four years ago, and it is his name that adorns the grandstand at Frankston Park.

Frankston's only VFA/VFL premiership coach, Bryan Mace. Picture: Frankston FC

"The committee insisted we were going to the VFA (for 1966), but that wasn't easily done – we had to get it through the local tribunals and there were appeals and goodness only knows what," he said.

"When you've been the leading club in your country league, to pull away from it suddenly leaves a big hole in that particular competition and there’s a lot of bad blood that is caused between the club that’s leaving and the clubs that are left behind.

"One of the biggest problems when you do that is you’re wanting to get the best of their players to come to your club in the VFA – that’s where the bad blood starts when you're pulling away from the competition you've been in for 100 years.

"(But) Frankston had got to be all powerful, and even though Sorrento and a couple of the other clubs had enough money to buy players in, we felt Frankston's population was probably 45,000 and you'd play Crib Point with a population of 400 or 500, so it just couldn't continue.

"Some of the Peninsula still hasn't caught up (population wise) – Crib Point has a wonderful little club but they just struggle to find players, it's like Tyabb, so I think it was right Frankston went up into the VFA."

CEO Adrian Lloyd said Mace took on the coaching role for the 1978 season after Frankston fell into financial difficulties and got the team to follow him all the way.

"He's a pretty good man manager and he got the guys behind him without any potential payment and we went all the way and won it against Camberwell at Toorak Park, so he is immortalised a bit there because we haven't won another senior one since," he said.

"Macey's done a fantastic job at our footy club over that time to keep it alive and he still comes down every Friday night and comes to every game and supports the club."

Lloyd is proud of his own role in helping bring Frankston back from the brink and is delighted with the position the club finds itself in ahead of a big night to mark the milestone.

"We've had our ups and downs over the years – while we haven't had as much success as we would have liked, the club has been around since 1887 so it is one of the oldest clubs," he said.

Jason Pongracic celebrates a Frankston win in round two, 2013. Picture: AFL Photos

"To be able to get a licence back has been fantastic and we seem to be travelling along okay this year with our young team.

"I was always confident (we'd reach the milestone) – I played at the club and I've been in the AFL industry for a long time and have returned as CEO, so I have a lifetime investment into that football club.

"(Western Bulldogs coach and former Frankston player) Luke Beveridge is speaking at 6.30pm and we have a presentation to all of our past best-and-fairest winners dating back to 1966, and we’ve got nearly 250 booked in for the function so it’s shaping up to be a pretty big night."

Lloyd said the club was trying to claim the Friday night timeslot, having already played Coburg in round one before the Footscray game, with Richmond set down for next Thursday night.

With commitments from Gold Coast, Port Melbourne, Box Hill Hawks and Werribee, this season's remaining home games are locked into Friday nights pending the official fixture releases.

"It's something the City of Frankston and our supporters are embracing – our membership is the highest it has ever been and we think we can still get a few more.

"Things are tracking along okay – we're disappointed we got beaten by the Bombers and Footscray will be pretty tough on Friday night, but we’ll see how we go."

A football lover, Mace is proud of being Frankston's only premiership coach, but does wish he had company in the club, although he sees the club’s narrow ground and holding on to young local talent as issues that need fixing.

Frankston players celebrate a goal at SkyBus Stadium in round one, 2021. Picture: AFL Photos

"I am disappointed we haven't won another flag. (David) Rhys-Jones had a chance for two years in particular (losing Grand Finals in 1996 by three points and 1997), but I think it showed we had the team, we just had the wrong ground," he said.

"It's going to be very difficult for Frankston on our ground – we're going to have to start playing or training on a wider ground like at Belvedere Park (the former Linen House Centre), which St Kilda have walked away from.

"Local players love to come and have a go at it, and we get some terrific local players in – each year we get to halfway and think these kids are playing really good football – but when the next season comes they get pressure from their mates to go back to their local clubs.

"We do lose a lot of our really good young players who have one or two years and won't stick the apprenticeship out to turn themselves into really capable senior players.

"Somehow we've got to be able to retain these boys and pay them a reasonable amount rather than have them go back to their local clubs and be paid the same amount that we're paying them."