Gabby Montagnese's journey at Eltham Redbacks began, like so many great volunteer stories do, as a parent on the sideline.
After joining the club to support her three children, Gabby’s role at the club grew from helping with sponsorships, to a seat on the committee and is now the Chief Operating Officer (COO). When the club needed someone to step up and take the reins, she put her hand up. She never really left.
As part of National Volunteer Week, Gabby's story is a reminder of what grassroots football can look like when someone brings their professional best to a volunteer role.
Gabby saw an opportunity to build long term, sustainable prosperity at Eltham. With a background in business, she understood that a club's long-term health depended on more than what happened on the pitch: it needed strong governance, clear roles and operational protections. So, she set about creating it, restructuring how the club was run to give every part of the operation the focus and leadership it deserved.
The work that followed was largely invisible to the people turning up on matchday. Administration, governance, sponsorship, uniforms and player registration, the unglamorous infrastructure that holds a football club together. Gabby threw herself into all of it, while simultaneously working to grow the club's female programs and ensure women and girls had the same opportunities as everyone else.
The results have followed. A club that once had around 100 members now over a thousand, with another 300 kids on a waitlist. Other clubs have begun reaching out, wanting to understand what Eltham Redbacks has done and how they might apply the same learnings.
"People come down and they go: What is with this club? There's something about this club," Gabby said.
"The juniors are so engaged in the senior space, and the seniors are engaged in the junior space. It's ultimately probably something that most people talk about but can't achieve."
Club Chairman, Ivan Dalla Costa has watched the transformation closely and is clear about what has driven it.
"She's a very successful businesswoman, and she's taken those skills back into the club," he said.
"She's been a leader for everybody, but also, more importantly, leader for the female part of the club, just to make sure we have equal balance between everybody."
That same ambition has pushed Gabby to look beyond the club's day-to-day operations. For years she has been working to improve Eltham Redbacks' facilities, engaging with local council and government at multiple levels to advocate for the investment the club needs.
Upgraded lighting and a new electronic scoreboard are already in place, and Gabby is now developing a broader redevelopment plan that would allow greater access to a nearby facility for not just the Redbacks, but the wider community, including local schools.
Also on the horizon is the launch of the club's All Abilities program. Redbacks will offer free come-and-try sessions and Gabby even got former Melbourne Victory player Marco Rojas to help launch the program, who already works with the club's youth players on mindset and performance.
That same philosophy of bringing professional expertise into the community extends to the club's female program, where current Melbourne Victory women's player Alana Jančevski works alongside the girls.
"One thing I think has worked really well for us is this whole element of players giving back to the sport,” Gabby said.
“I feel like in community sporting clubs, we can do that well.
“It’s been a good journey … it’s a big beast, keeping it safe and controlled and all the stuff that sort of happens, but it’s been really rewarding to be fair."