Wednesday 21 January 2009

South in a Suburb called Oakleigh

You may, or may not have heard about this, but apparently South is going to wage guerrilla warfare of sorts by entering Chokeleigh territory and setting up a stall in front of a cake shop sponsor of this club and selling memberships and such. You can download the flyer for it here. Anyway, while it's nice that memberships are finally available, the whole operation does raise interesting questions about the club's status. Are we a club for the Greeks of the city? Are we a club for the South Melbourne area?

Here are some guesses of what could go down this Saturday.

  1. People will be laughed at.
  2. There might be some cussing.
  3. Still current South supporters will buy memberships, giving the illusion that people are still interested.
  4. There will be no memberships to buy, or at best, a table and a price list.
  5. People will be so blown away they'll buy a membership for the first time ever or in years, and recommend the club to their friends and family.
  6. People will stop and stare and seem confused? South Melbourne? What's that?
  7. People will buy cake.
  8. South of the Border will not be there, because they will be too busy working in order to earn money to pay for their membership and extravagant 50th anniversary related purchases.
  9. It might actually go spectacularly well, with interest regenerated in the club.
  10. No one will bring South of the Border back any cake after it's all done.

I don't want it to sound like sour grapes of bitterness, but we should give the club some credit. They're trying to reach as many relevant people (what the marketing types call 'receptive audiences'), and it's not like they're forgetting the local area they now represent - indeed the usual family day will be on next month - but because of what has happened to the club and the way people jumped off so quickly, you fret and worry about what having to almost beg for supporters means. Or maybe it's the kind of humility that was too long absent from the club, and it's better late than never to ask people to come and support this great club, rather than expect them to.

And just in case anyone asks, this is not because they're not doing it on Altona North that it may appear I'm being a little (maybe a lot for some people) down on the idea. That kind of thinking applies mostly to trains and why eastern suburbs people get new ones first while we still had to ride the old Hitachis with their spacious legroom, windows you could open, and oldskool rattle and shake. As you were.

2 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Not that I can remember. Maybe tried something at St Kilda or South Melbourne beach? Northcote? Mind's a blank.

      Delete

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