The internet has spawned an innumerable number of viral sensations.
You don’t have to look beyond the unlikely rise of New Zealand right-back Tim Payne to see the power of social media.
The Wellington Phoenix defender was picked by influencer ‘El Scarso’ as the man Argentina would rally behind during the World Cup as the “least-known player” with under 5,000 followers.
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He now has 5.7 million — a staggering number.
So can a glorified Sunday league team based in the foot of the Blue Mountains follow in his footsteps and become a social media sensation?
Well, spoiler alert – they already have, with the reach of the Blaxland Redbacks’ division two side, made famous by Harry Falchi and Sporting Club Helos, stretching global.
“Within football, naturally it comes from the streets and the streets love an underdog, so when we get Tim Payne, someone who I can’t remember a highlight but I can’t remember a notable lowlight. The way it was positioned, it was an underdog story, we have Tim Payne, this seemingly regular guy who’s playing football at the World Cup. People could find a relation to that,” Falchi said to foxsports.com.au.
“It was something so positive to get behind… even if Tim played bad, people would still say ‘no, that’s my GOAT’. People would still get behind it.”
All of this is to say there’s some parallels between Payne and SC Helos’ stories.
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The man affectionately known as ‘Falcon’ was recently sitting on a park bench in London, and what came next left him stunned.
“It was like 8am on a Wednesday morning, some guy walks past me, and then he comes back,” Falchi said.
“He walks back and he goes ‘you do the Sunday league stuff in Australia’. That’s insane.”
It’s mind-blowing a random person on the other side of the world spot ‘Falcon’, yes. But when you consider the staggering reach of his football presence, it makes sense.
The mountains local has been building a cult following since 2023, filming his team’s antics in the Nepean District competition.
The Redbacks, and specifically Falchi’s team, are comfortably the most-watched non-professional team in the country.
Many of those views came on a video of his own 40-yard screamer, which he got the chance to show to Socceroos legend Harry Kewell.
”I play Sunday league in Penrith, division two. I want to show you a goal I scored, or maybe two, actually maybe a third,” Falchi said.
As the first clip played, the build-up to a screamer on the now-famous St Johns Oval, Kewell delivered a shock.
“I think I’ve seen this… wow,” he said.
Then the Socceroos legend dished out some high praise, especially when you consider just how lethal he was with 57 Premier League goals and 17 for his country.
“Mate that is textbook… that is me to a tee,” Kewell said after watching the vision, again.
Then following a goal from the kick-off and a weak-foot goal, Falchi delivered a vivid description of himself as a player.
“I’m called the fat Pirlo, five-star weak foot. I’m half Italian as well,” he said before inviting the former Liverpool and Galatasary star to the Redbacks’ home turf.
“Blaxland Maccas, 500 metres to your left, I will see you there,” Falchi added.
Football and virality going hand-in-hand.
“To have someone in London, on their way to work, in the high-vis get-up, to notice me in such a casual environment, it hit me there,” he said.
“I was like f*** this reaches way further than I thought. Even Harry Kewell the other day when I showed him my highlights, and he goes ‘I think I have seen this’.”
But when you take a look at the numbers, it’d be surprising for a man like Kewell, who we can only imagine has an algorithm filled with football content, to have not seen it.
A quick look at the Sporting Club Helos TikTok account shows multiple videos with north of a million views.
Across Tiktok, Instagram and YouTube (not counting Facebook) Sporting Club Helos are around the 15th most-followed football groups.
“Essentially you have 13 A-League clubs, you have Auckland City who play in the FIFA World Cup, then you have South Melbourne,” he said.
“We sit with them at over 50,000 followers across the three platforms. We sit in a healthy spot… but I think one of the things that people underestimate about us it that everything’s original.
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“That I think is the most impressive part, it’s not the ‘follower count’ so to speak, it’s the fact we’ve really pulled something out of our arse here.
“Sometimes it’s s***, sometimes it’s gold. But either way, we are going to put it out.”
So, at its core, why film a Sunday league football club in Australia?
“It’s the essence of Australian football at its heart. It’s a fan’s perspective on everything as someone who comes from fan culture,” Falchi explained.
“It’s documenting a Sunday league team week to week and what goes on in running a team, and our games. Then it’s specialised stories within amateur and semi-professional football across the country.”
Interestingly too, the Redbacks have recruited some impressive players along the way.
Jack Davidson, who spent time in La Liga youth academies, before giving up the chase of a professional contract, joined their side.
Elsewhere, Zac Rizzo, the nephew of Liverpool recruit and Crystal Palace 68-gamer Nick Rizzo, is also a regular fixture, adding to the pedigree.
But having a strong social media following is all well and good. What comes from it is the potential to make a change to a culture adored my so many globally.
Falchi has a burning desire to have a positive impact on Australian football as a whole, a sporting landscape he believes sits in a dire position.
“When I think about football culture, it’s just the idea that there’s no ‘pay to play’. It’s exclusively away from structures of capitalism,” he said.
“In a sense of like let’s take money away, strip it back to what it is and everything that makes it beautiful at its core.
“That’s exactly what we are trying to.”