Creative & Directed by Hello Shovel’s Adam Connolly, while at Visual Domain
Play Football
Find your place, join our team
Every football story starts somewhere smaller than people remember.
A local pitch. Wet boots. Car rides to training. Parents on the sideline. Someone kicking a ball around after dark because they’re not ready to go home yet.
For Football Australia, the goal wasn’t just to promote grassroots football. It was to remind people that the distance between local clubs and the world stage is smaller than it looks. We all play the same game and there is space for us all.
But football is more than just a game, it’s a place to find your feet, make new friends and learn new skills.
About the project
Created for Football Australia, this national campaign set out to celebrate the full ecosystem of grassroots football; the players, coaches, volunteers, families and communities that keep the game alive long before stadium lights and national jerseys enter the picture.
As Lead Creative and Director, Hello Shovel’s Adam Connolly oversaw the campaign from the first idea through to final delivery, shaping the concept, scripting, production and post-production across the entire rollout.
The creative approach centred around one simple thought: the gap between grassroots football and professional football isn’t as wide as people think. We focussed not on the end result but the journey it takes to get there. We are all write our own story and one that fuelled by passion and love of the game is a story worth writing.
Filmed across six clubs and three states — including regional locations throughout Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria — the production chased moments that felt honest to Australian football culture no matter where you were. A suburban clubhouse. A regional training ground. Kids dragging goals across wet grass before training starts.
Different locations. Same game.
The challenge wasn’t making football look cinematic. Football already does that. The real work was capturing the feeling that everyone belongs somewhere inside it.
The final campaign delivered a grounded and emotionally driven portrait of Australian football culture across TV, BVOD and digital platforms.
The weight of amazing footage that was captured as part of this shoot enabled the client to roll into the following years campaign without filming anything. Instead reusing the footage with a creative and trending editing technique. Using match cuts to centre and focus on the ball gave the footage new life and a whole new vibe. Inserting professional games in there from the Socceroos and Matildas rounded out the concepts proposition again, that the pathway to greatness in in your local town.
Find your place. Join our team. Play Football.
