So, it’s 5:49pm on Wednesday afternoon and like everyone across the industry, GIANTS staff are on their emails, waiting to find out if the AFL season is going to start and the AFLW season continue this weekend at GIANTS Stadium.
About 50 emails have just pinged across the GIANTS staff, playing groups and board after CEO Dave Matthews posed this question:
‘Let’s assume you are stuck working at home due to unforeseen circumstances. And you find yourself on endless AFL teleconferences comprising 18 Presidents; 18 CEOs; nine AFL Commissioners; nine AFL Executives and a couple of random IT guys. You cannot get a word in anyway so logically you mute your phone and put your favourite movie on - what is that film?’
We can assure you Dave is paying attention to every detail of the call. But the shout out works. In less than an hour there’s been more than 40 replies to his email.
The top picks? Plenty of sports movies. Leon Cameron’s gone with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Chairman Tony Shepherd loves the soundtrack to Remember the Titans and one of the guys from Commercial says Notting Hill (awwww).
With nearly every admin staff member working from home, it’s important for the GIANTS family to stay connected in times like these. Yesterday we all reminisced on our favourite wins (Zac Langdon picked a game he kicked three in, typical, and no surprise that Brent Daniels picked the semi-final he kicked the winning goal in, either).
For Mitchell Dale, our Marketing, Audience and Insights Manager, it’s really hard to build an audience and market a game no one can come to. And with computers and telephones the only way to stay in touch with your team.
“Our marketing team meetings used to start with a chat over a coffee, now we all have the coffee at home on our web cam,” he said.
“It is hard to feel connected in these times but I think the whole team is really making a concerted effort to connect with each other, but also working on projects to make sure our fans remain just as connected with the club.”
The consumer team comprises marketing, match day and events, ticketing and membership and they’re running a MTV style competition called “Pimp Your Workplaces”.
Mitch has plenty of GIANTS merch in his set-up but the clubhouse leader is Reece, the Membership and Ticketing Manager, whose workplace for some reason looks like the inside of Mooseheads (if you’re from Canberra, you know).
Today, the staff would usually get to hear about Tom Green’s debut and contract extension in person ahead of everyone else but this time they can only hear via email just before Leon Cameron announces it to a group of journalists who’ve braved a trip to GIANTS Stadium for main training.
Lucky the GIANTS app is there to keep everyone up to date on the latest news (hint, it definitely helps Mitch’s metrics if you do and make sure you check out the Toyo Tires game he designed).
“For me, it’s great to see anyone succeed and progress at the GIANTS, whether that’s on the footy field or in the front office,” Mitch says.
“It’s really exciting to see another great Academy prospect take the field in the AFL and we’re excited to see Tom already wanting to extend his time at the club.”
So as we all while away the time waiting to find out what the verdict is for this weekend (props to Collingwood for their excellent meme-game), Mitch and the marketing team will go back to planning for two games that may or may not happen.
Rest assured, if we get the go ahead, we’ve got plenty planned for Saturday night.
Keep your fingers crossed!
Update: We on!
