Betsy’s Paul Tatnell sat down with race caller and Fox Footy commentator Matt Hill ahead of what will be one of his biggest springs yet.
At 45, Hill is firmly established as the voice of Victorian racing, set to call the Melbourne Cup, Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate, but this season, he will also take his seat in the commentary box for the AFL finals series, calling the game alongside some of football’s biggest names.
In part 2 of an extended interview, Hill talks about:
- Balancing his love for race calling and his Fox Footy commitments
- His idols and the role of his mother Sue in shaping his career
- Who he seeks advice from
- His love for football
- Why he avoids social media
Paul:
One thing from your reputation around the media world, and I hope you don’t mind me saying this, is that you don’t have an ego
Matt:
Yeah, that’s probably true but the world would be a different place without egos.
Paul:
Do you take stock sometimes and think how far you’ve come?
Matt:
Oh, for sure. The funny thing about egos is that there’s a lot of people out there who have no idea who I am, you know what I mean? So I don’t really think like that at all, to be honest, it’s never entered my mind. I’m actually more just someone who, I just like to challenge myself. I think that’s more, I think, I like to try and get as much out of whatever talent I’ve been given and see how far I can take it.
Paul:
I saw a tweet recently that had you pointing out that you called the races on a Friday, into the football in Geelong that night, back into the racing on Saturday. In my mind, that doesn’t seem sustainable. How do you see it?
Matt:
That was a one-off but you’re right. I won’t be able to keep doing that for 20 years. I’ve got the busiest time ahead. That’s why it was good to catch up now because the September I’ve got is going to be quite overwhelming with horse racing, footy finals, and I’m doing nine days of the World Athletics Championships on Channel 9.
Paul:
Amazing.
Matt:
I’ve got so much going on, and so yeah, to be honest, I actually just do it because I really love it.
I don’t have many days off, but I do genuinely love it. Can I sustain it? Probably what’s interesting about it is I’ve always been a believer that you can’t be everything to everyone.
So it’s not like I’m going to pop up calling golf tournaments soon or motor racing or anything else because you’ve got to be an expert at a couple of things. Do you know what I mean? But footy and racing is interesting because they do, I’m actually the lucky one because back when Greg Miles and Bryan Martin and Bill Collins and all that were calling, football was Saturday afternoon, two o’clock.
Paul:
That was it.
Matt:
That was it. The odd Sunday game when we were growing up was the game at Carrara or the WACA or wherever, so I’m lucky that I can spread it out. The footy’s gone from Thursday to Mondays and the great carrot for me is the Melbourne Cup. That’s the carrot.
Paul:
So could you see a day, where you had to cut back some of the race calling?
Matt:
Not really, mainly because Thursday, Friday nights fit, unless the main race meeting becomes a Thursday night where I’ll be in a bit of trouble, but at the moment, they were the two loves as a kid and I’ve been able to wrestle it, and unless they want to run a Group One race on grand final day, then I’m in trouble. And they’d be stupid to do it.
Paul:
As a Bulldogs fan, did you used to go to the Whitten Oval with your parents?
Matt:
Like every Melbournian, it’s in your blood. In Melbourne you’re brought up in that, with that culture. I might be biased, but I still can’t be convinced there’s a better game in the world than football. When it’s close and it’s fast, I can’t find a better sport than it.
Paul:
I know you’ve spoken about the impact of your mum on your life. How would you describe her impact? How has she shaped you?
Matt:
She was tough, but she was a typical mum. You could literally be a criminal, but she’d still love you. She was a typical mum. She taught me a lot of things, like she’d never let me leave the house unpresentable.
She would watch the races and if she thought I’d stuffed something up, she would tell me. Or sometimes even after a footy game, she’d say something like, “Gee, you got a bit excited there.” In other words, you went over the top.
Paul:
You were lucky to have her.
Matt:
She’s still with me. Sometimes I feel like I’ve never lost her. She still is, because she was such an impact on me. The story goes that she loved Ronan Keating and Ronan Keating sang at the Melbourne Cup last year. So even though it was my first one without her, she was still with me in some way.
Paul:
She raised you as a Western suburbs boy, I assume hence your love of the Bulldogs?
Matt:
Yes, in Altona Meadows. I’m still there as a proud Altona resident. She bought that home in the days when every single home in Altona Meadows was full of kids, and all the kids have flown the coop and I’m still there.
Paul:
You were obviously very close to your mum. How did she feel watching you go from a 15-year-old kid to multi-faceted caller?
Matt:
She’s a bragger. She was the biggest bragger on planet Earth. And yeah, so I think there’s still a lot of mum with me. We lost mum this time last year and everyone in her nursing home knew that her son called the Melbourne Cup and half of them didn’t understand it, but she still told them.
She was very proud and she was one of those people that, because as I say, she brought us up to be pretty humble people. We were a very humble family.
We were a single mother family. I remember there was always a coin jar in the kitchen, and that was our little contributor. We’d put our coins in there and that was helping buy the house.
Paul:
How old were you then?
Matt:
Mum bought that house when I was about five or six, I suppose. And the thing about that was now I live in that house. I’m having a lot of trouble reconciling with getting rid of it because she worked that hard for it. She used to have a secondary job. She worked in a hotel called the Palmerston Hotel and she was a kitchen hand there, but down at the Palmerston Hotel, one of the cameramen at Channel 7 worked there, as well, and he took me in to meet Bruce [McAvaney] for the first time at Sportsworld when I was about 10.
Paul:
Considering your career path, I can’t believe you met Bruce when you were 10 years old.
Matt:
Yeah, well he doesn’t remember that, but I generally remember it.
Paul:
Do you have a photo of it by any chance?
Matt:
He doesn’t even realise this. He left the set. I vividly remember it. So there was the Channel 7 Studios, if you can imagine. Sports World had the set there, and Mum and I sat on the 7 News set because that was at the background. So we actually sat where Jennifer Keyte would’ve sat.
And we are sitting in on the 7 News set and Bruce left the show, it was 12 o’clock. He went, “Matt, I’ll be back in a moment.” And he came back and he shook my hand and he gave me a little signed photo, little signed photo as they did back then, those little signed photos. “Dear Matthew, all the very best, Bruce McAveney,” and it’s a picture of a young Bruce with his signature on it.
Paul:
What an amazing reflection.
Matt:
So I’ve known Bruce for 25 years or something. So that was pretty special.
Paul:
How have broadcasters like Bruce shaped your own career?
Matt:
I’m a big believer in that if you’re going to try and be successful in something, having heroes is a very important thing. Just even to watch guys like him, and as I say, Greg Miles has spent a lot of time in the box with him, and Jim in England, and all these people you think to yourself, well they’re successful for a reason. So I’ve tended to not model myself, that’s not quite true, but I follow their professionalism. There are parts of me sometimes, if you’re in a situation on a set or at a racetrack or a footy game, you think, what would Bruce do in this situation? What would Greg do in this situation? And that’s important.
Paul:
Do you ever ask them for advice or feedback?
Matt:
Yeah, yeah. I think we’ve got to the stage that if they say something to me, I would add, you’ve got to be very careful with who you take advice from nowadays, and the thing is, I’ve never been a social media person and because I’m a sensitive soul, I would hate to think what someone would say about me because there are some nasty people out there. I’ve always thought, you’ve got to be very careful who you listen to, because sometimes people are just nasty. So you just, someone like Bruce or Greg, I would ask, who I would run something by.
Paul:
There are not many broadcasters that have that feedback on you on social media that you receive. The vast majority is positive.
Matt:
I’m told so, yeah.
Paul:
The reason I bring it up because in this kind of climate, it is unusual.
Matt:
I think Mark Howard asked me on his podcast, why do you think that is? And I said, “Well maybe it’s just that I come from the right place that I just love calling footy and maybe that just comes across.”
So I don’t want to be the guy that takes over the broadcast, either. I think less is more sometimes.
So maybe that comes across. I can’t answer that question really, but I just find that, Stephen Fry said it once, that you could have a lovely Olympic swimming pool that’s glistening blue, but there’s a turd in the corner. You’re still not going to jump in the pool, are you?
So for some reason, some people are different that they can cop a bit of criticism or whatever, but you might have 99 lovely things that people have said and then there’s one that sits in your head.
What people don’t realise about calling, particularly racing, football a bit different because you’ve got a bit of time and you’ve got people with you, but what people don’t understand is that, and don’t worry, I get tortured by this, is that racing, I am one step away from a major disaster.
Paul:
How so?
Matt:
Calling the wrong horse, winning the Melbourne Cup, calling or getting the photo wrong on the Cox Plate. You are one step away. So you have to be like the batsman with Curtly Ambrose charging towards you and go, “well come on, come at me.” Do you know what I mean? You have to be like that. You can’t be overconfident, but you’ve got to be prepared for what comes your way. So if you’ve got something in the back of your mind that beer belly Bill down at Frankston said, “oh, Matt Hill can’t call,” and that’s sitting around in your head, it’s no good.
Paul:
You never do social media ever?
Matt:
No. When I first worked at the ABC, I had Twitter for news because I working news radio, but then my predecessor, Greg Miles, had a dreadful run on Twitter. They were absolutely giving it to him. I still reckon that’s partially the reason why he gave it away. And from that point on, I thought, this is not for me. And don’t worry, I get it. You’re in the public eye, so people are into it. People have a go, right?
Paul:
For a prominent caller and broadcaster, the feedback on your work is positive. That is unusual in this era. I believe you don’t use social media?
Matt:
The two things I always think about social media, is I think to myself, I’m actually quite lucky, the jockeys cop it harder, and footballers. I admire the young jockeys and the young footballers because they cop it, but they find it funny.
The one thing I would say is don’t worry if I make a mistake calling a race, like calling the photo wrong. Photo finishes are another subject altogether because that’s another scientific thing, because I’ll be torturing myself already.
Paul:
Do you always feel the need to have a crack at a photo finish?
Matt:
People don’t realise a few things with photo finishes. I would argue three of the four city tracks in Melbourne, the camera angle that everyone else is watching is different from what I’m watching. It’s just bloody difficult.
There are three things with calling photos. If I get one wrong, they hate you; if I don’t go for one, they hate you; and if I get one right, people go, “play on.” They don’t say anything. So the loneliest place to be is to actually get one right, because no one says anything.
But if I do make a blue, it might be something simple. It might be the horse was called Paul’s Lass and I’ve called it Paul’s Miss the whole way. I’ll stew on that for 48 hours.
Paul:
Really? Over something so minor?
Matt:
I’ll torture myself over it. Yeah, because my point of view is if I’ve got a horse and I’ve paid good money to run that horse at Sandown and the caller can’t even get its name right, I’d be pissed off.
Paul:
What do you do at home, Matt? Because I feel like you’re a bit of an enigma. Very polite, you’re a lovely guy, you’re very good at what you do, but what is life like away from work?
Matt:
I love lunches. I love a lunch, I love music. I adore music.
Paul:
What’s your favourite kind of music?
Matt:
I’ve got my old favourites, like John Farnham’s and all that. I’m into Benson Boone at the moment, and I love to travel.
Paul:
Can you sing?
Matt:
Oh God, no. I’d love to. If there was one thing I’d love to be able to do it’s sing. I am told I’m horrific. Horrific. Yeah, yeah. No, I’ve broken glass at home singing. Shocking.
Paul:
What’s your favourite holiday destination?
Matt:
That’s a good one. I recently went to Buenos Aires. Racing got me there, actually. I went to the races there and I loved it. I love Britain, love Britain. Haven’t traversed enough of America yet. I’ve been to New York a couple of times and loved it. I do love those European cities. I’ve got Prague and all those little tinier ones, I’ve enjoyed them.
The one thing I do want to do a bit of is, I’ve got an inner travel writer in me. I’d love to be a travel writer. That’d be fun. So yeah, love to travel. If I’ve got four or five days off in a row, which is very rare, the first thing I think of is getting on a plane somewhere. I love that. Little bit of golf, not a lot of golf, but I can play a bit.
Paul:
What’s your handicap?
Matt:
The golf course is a handicap. Yeah, so I’ve got a personal trainer, so twice a week train. So between all of that, I’m full.
Paul:
So we get out for one lunch, where would you take me?
Matt:
Rockpool.
Paul:
What would you order?
Matt:
The normal. You’d have a steak, but the macaroni cheese would absolutely have to get a run. I find the irony of that is going to a really high class restaurant, you still get mac and cheese.
But to answer that question in a more complete way, I love to find out new places. I love restaurants. I would go to a long lunch anywhere if it was somewhere new. If I’ve got two days off, which is my weekend, have a lunch somewhere, catch up. Pretty social person, actually.
Paul:
A large group of friends?
Matt:
No, not large. I feel like I know I’ve probably got a really good group of friends and then a thousand acquaintances, as well. I’m certainly not an enigma in that respect, and then of course I’ve got Oliver at home, my little dog who drives me insane. He’s 16 and the vet reckons he’ll go to 20, little Aussie Terrier.
Paul:
And named after a certain jockey?
Matt:
No. Actually, my brother named him. He wanted to give him a regal name, so Oliver got a run. I reckon once Ollie leaves me, I’ll probably get another dog or two.
