Michelle Cooling’s Post

My 7-year Swanniversary 🦢 ❤️ Not sure where those years have gone but I am a better person for everything I’ve done at this club and everyone I’ve met over the past 7 years in Sydney. In my time at the club so far I’ve been social media coordinator, social media manager, media manager for both the AFL and AFLW teams and my role has now evolved to a bit of everything.. PR, social & content with a big focus on our growth markets, audience and platforms (aka a millennial leading Tik Tok strategy 😉) & also our 150 year content and comms. I’ve been lucky to be part of some amazing moments and grateful for all the connections I’ve made & I am looking forward to making many more. Season 2024- season 8, let’s goo!

My 8th season with the Swans started last night and it was a big one being our 150th year celebration game and the AFL season opener! Everyone at the club put in a lot of work and it was rewarded with a win and 40k at the SCG bringing plenty of noise as our past and present celebrated a big night. While the year is just getting started, work began some time ago and it’s been great to be on the 150 working group. Those who know me know I am a very detail oriented person and care a great deal about the work I do. I’m really proud of producing the 150 video piece below with the creative lens & editing skills of Jose @ Downtown Events, Christian Bucciarelli Jonathon Monasso Amanda Turner. It’s hard to get 150 years of history and incredible moments in 3 minutes but we got there! Thanks to our incredible talent Michael O'Loughlin Jude Bolton Paul Roos Adam Spencer Chloe Molloy Rebecca Skilton Adam Goodes and Luke Parker for their role in making this a really special piece. I’ve read comments today that it has made fans emotional, teary eyed and nostalgic which is amazing to read.

Thanks so much to Comms Room Akolade Tara Sellar for inviting me to speak at the 9th annual Comms Leaders Summit in Melbourne this week. I’ve presented before at a few social conferences but this group of 150+ attendees was probably the largest I’ve spoken to. My topic was ‘Emerging Platforms’ and in my presentation I really wanted to lean into the important role social managers play in the wider brand and business and ensure that they are doing the platforms they are on well without getting overwhelmed with the current landscape. I was also part of a panel alongside Caitlin Cash and Vanessa Saines to chat about leveraging the power of video (particularly short form) and it was a really great discussion. I’m often involved in sports conferences but hearing how sectors such as education and health are doing their content was insightful. I’ve received some good feedback from participants so thanks to those who have reached out, it meant a lot! #sms #media #content #socialmedia #commsleaderssummit

Thinking about this first post in 2017 and the second one from last night, after the club made AFLW finals for the first time. It’s been special to be there for everything in between these two moments ❤️🦢 Let the rollercoaster continue!

This is little Colby. I met him and his family a few months ago when he was our junior mascot at our game. I was speaking to his Mum, Helen and she was telling me their family’s story. Colby has undergone 64 operations with more to come. He has acquired brain injury, cerebral palsy, non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis, chronic lung disease, COPD and a few other conditions. The family have had to recently leave their life in QLD and relocate to Sydney for treatment. I felt drawn to try help them as they have a limited support network here in NSW. I also couldn’t comprehend a child having 64 surgeries and what Colby’s family is going through. I’ve been helping them with a few things since and then last week our wonderful Swans partners Bing Lee Electrics have helped the family greatly, donating some much needed homewares to help them out further. I can’t thank Regina Mendoza and Anita Savoldi from Bing Lee enough for their help as the family set up a new home while Colby gets treatment in Sydney. Thanks to Jad Maserow and Alana Woodward from our team too. If anyone would like to help the family, they have a GoFund me page set up here: https://gofund.me/bc0a4cd1

I say to people all the time that the most I have learned about Indigenous history and culture has been during my time at the Sydney Swans. This goes back to my first week at the club in 2017 when an Elder came in for a two-day cultural education session. I came out of that thinking why didn’t I learn any of that at school… Fast forward to 2023 and this year for Marn Grook week we took part in a cultural session which incorporated learning Dharawal language through the Gujaga Foundation. With that in mind I decided to use some of this language while live tweeting our game on Friday night! Thanks to Mark Heiss for his help prior to me executing this, I hope our audience learned a few new words! 🪃

One of the special parts of my job is working with Georgia Field and our charity partner Redkite in connecting our players with the amazing work Redkite do. The last time we were able to get into the Sydney Children's Hospital was December 2019 before the pandemic hit so it was nice to be able to take Harry, Isaac, Tom, Alana and Kiara there on Tuesday to take part in a session with Matt for Music Therapy Week. Looking forward to executing some big projects with Redkite this year, in their 23rd year of partnering with the club.

Thanks to Reuben Williams and Ryan Walker for having me on the Sydney SportsGrad panel last night. I’ve been a big fan of what these guys have done so it was great to finally connect with them in person! I also really enjoyed talking about my career to date and meeting the community. It was great to see so much interest from those in attendance with plenty of questions thrown my way. I also enjoyed meeting lots of new people who work in sport or want to pursue a career in sport.

Looking forward to being on this week’s SportsGrad Sydney panel and sharing my journey & experiences!