Background

Carlton Football Club is the most successful team in the AFL, but in 2015 had finished bottom of the ladder and fired their head coach. The Club was in dire need of some hope for it’s passionate but long-suffering supporters.

Idea

The 2016 season promised a new coach, number 1 draft pick and the drafting of the son of perhaps Carlton’s greatest ever player. To capitalise on this opportunity I created an all-access docu-series, taking the fans behind-the-scenes at the Club. This type of content was being popularised in the giant sports scene of the US but had never been explored in Australia.

Over two seasons I wrote, produced, shot and edited 10 half hour episodes of The Journey, driving home the key messages of the new coach and bringing hope back to a supporter base that was beginning to lose it.

Impact

The Journey aired on network television to a large audience via Channel 7 and Fox Footy. The episodes were housed on the Carlton FC website and Youtube, playing a key role in my team achieving an AFL-high 20 million video views for the year in 2017. By showing the highs of the team arm-in-arm after a win, as well as the heartbreak of the rooms after a loss, paired with stories of the players and coaches with their families, pursuing their passions outside football, fans were able to see the club for more than what they did on the field, and care for the team in an entirely new way.