Matt Hill: A whole different ball game

Already renowned as one of the best sports broadcasters in the world, Matt Hill, the voice of Victorian thoroughbred racing, is fast becoming one of the most revered voices in Australia’s favourite football code, the AFL.

Hill fulfilled a lifelong goal to call elite football when he was added to radio station SEN’s broadcast team in 2021, a few years later than he had anticipated when he first relocated from Sydney to Melbourne in 2017.

“People might not be aware that when I came back to Melbourne, it was to call the footy first and foremost, not racing,” Hill explained.

“But the plans ended up coinciding with the retirement of Greg Miles. I hadn’t really considered that role as Victorian caller out of respect to Greg, but when he made the call, it was an opportunity to take the job that I had always wanted. I had to put football aside for a while.”

Like most Melburnians, Hill loves the footy. A proud Western Bulldogs supporter, he would spend hours in the backyard at home as a child, kicking his footy through a set of goalposts, then dutifully recording the scores on a nearby chalkboard; in his childhood mind, it was his own MCG.

“I even used to write down the race results on the board, just like they did at the games in those days,” he said.

“I had a vivid imagination as a child and still do. I always imagined calling sport – especially footy, and racing; I knew I was destined to do what I’m doing.

I remember vividly going to a VFL game with my dad at Port Melbourne, sitting in the grandstand and calling the game to myself out loud.

“I’m sure people around us were looking at me, wondering what the hell was going on, but I was just so focused on the game, I loved it.”

As well as his weekly commitments to racing as Victoria’s leading caller, Hill is rostered to call around 60 AFL games each season for pay-per-view television broadcaster Fox Footy and radio station SEN.

A typical week can see Hill calling eight races at Sandown on a Wednesday, flying interstate the next day for Thursday night football. Friday becomes a rest and prepare day for a big card of races on Saturday, before another football game to finish the weekend.

Throw in the odd overseas trip like his June excursion to the USA to call the Lexus Melbourne Cup golden ticket qualifier, the Belmont Gold Cup, and it’s a schedule that demands specific preparation. 

“It’s definitely a tighter schedule during footy season. Gather Round this year was a little tight with two trips to Adelaide, but you make it work,” Hill said.

When it comes to the nuances of race calling versus football commentary, Hill says the two are, pardon the pun, two completely different ball games.

Race calling is almost a solo pursuit as the caller is perched high in the stand in a small box with an eagle eye view of the track. Their audience is split in part between those live on course on the lawns and in the stands below, to those watching from afar on TV and streaming services or listening on the radio.

“It’s a very lonely life in a way. You don’t really work with anyone and basically keep your own company,” he explained.

“Footy is different, you’re a part of a commentary team. You pass the game to each other and take turns; there are special comments experts to add meaning to the narrative.

There’s a story that evolves over a longer period, and it’s my job to tell the part that I see.”

The preparation for each sport is also different. The photographic memories of race callers are storied, and their ability to learn and assign names to colours up to ten times a race day and then call a race without error is a remarkable skill, to say the least.

During Melbourne Cup week, we’ve got 37 races and up to 500 horses to learn – and remember, the same colours can be worn multiple times by different horses across the race day and the week,” said Hill.

“Before a game of football, I’ll spend twenty minutes or so looking at every player and learning their faces. I find that helps a lot, especially if it’s a team or a new player that I haven’t called before. Once the game starts, you notice the different ways that players move across the ground, and that forms part of that recall memory as the game unfolds.” 

Some players are almost iconic in their gait and movement, like Bulldogs star Marcus Bontempelli. Others are iconic for different reasons, like Geelong speedster Bailey Smith with his long blonde hair, white headband and moustache.

“I’ve noticed something quite amazing about my brain during a game. In the first quarter, you find yourself padding a little bit, learning new players or working out where players are positionally and what the key contests are.

“Then suddenly, it’s late in the second quarter and there’s a huge pack surrounded by players, and you know instinctively who is at the bottom of it. Your brain has learned the narrative, and often it happens without realising it. AFL is not the easiest game to call!”

Matt Hill video courtesy AFL Nation and SEN.  

Funnily enough, Hill’s biggest fear when calling the footy is not getting a player’s name wrong or stumbling over a passage of play, it’s sounding too much like a race caller.

“It’s always on my mind. I try desperately not to sound like a race caller commentating a game of football. When you think of someone like Rex Hunt and his great calls, they would at times have a tempo similar to a race call, and often built to an exciting crescendo, much like a horse race would. Sometimes, the flow of the game lends itself to that fast, bouncy expression.

“I just want to be true to the game and call what I see. If I can do that and do my role within the team, then I’m happy at the end of the game.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s the MCG or Flemington, I can’t wait to go to work and get stuck in. I’m so grateful to be doing something I love.”