South Melbourne recently paraded the Australia Cup trophy at Melbourne City Town hall for local polies and to generate some pretty sick photos. South flags draped over one of the most beautiful buildings in the city and players rubbing shoulders with some key decision makers. All in all not a bad day at the office.

Perhaps it’s an extension of Billy P, our newest co-president who has a solid track record in networking, but South’s recent community presence is very notable. This goes beyond the social media work and bread and butter stuff that has been incredible this past year (merch, vids etc.), but rather I want to chat specifically about South’s physical visibility in the community.

The Australia Cup was paraded through Greek Community festivals, but this recent Melbourne Town Hall visit follows on from extensive political networking including invitations from Victorian Parliament, photo opportunities with Greek pollies and networking events at games where government ministers rub shoulders with state and local pollies.

This step up in networking is as much about the OPL as it is the Australia Cup and Australian Championship. It’s also as much about South being seen as an elite entity beyond a Greek Community pillar. The networking strategy appears to encompass a ‘more is more’ attitude in that the club is physically on the ground unashamedly providing access to all levels of the community, but also making an effort to get in front of the right kinds of people, namely pollies.

Now, not all of these pollies actually make decisions for South, but by generating these photo opportunities the club shows an understanding of how networking and status elevation works. Sit in front of enough local pollies, the state pollies feel comfortable meeting you, similarly work with enough state pollies and federal pollies feel comfortable meeting you. Well done to the community for this dual approach of getting the club into political spaces, but also providing access to the wider community.

On other clubs now – specifically A-League clubs – South has shown how status and networks accumulate over time, by putting in the effort and making the most of each story. Sometimes I get the sense that A-League clubs, specifically Melbourne Victory are too proud to provide access to ordinary fans (how many trophy tours had they done in the day) but also too proud to put in the leg work with pollies publicly.

To be fair as a community club, the voluntary nature of the roles at South provides both a comforting story and necessitate faces of the club to be front and centre. This year we’ve seen South publicly name and celebrate their media team, medical team, and even post stories about volunteers. That builds community just as much as rolling out the Presidents for the media and the pollies.

When was the last time you saw a Victory rep celebrated by the club? Can any of their operations staff be named or recognised? In preserving a corporate brand through staff anonymity, the club loses community presence and over the course of years, the club will be forced to live and die by how that more volatile corporate brand is perceived.

Pollies don’t take photos with logos, they take photos with faces. Bad media stick to logos, practically too it can be more effectively managed when targeted at a real person.

South understands that, and if these efforts continue over the coming years, the sky is the limit for the club.