Network 10 commentator Simon Hill talks to aleagues.com.au ahead of his 16th and final call of an Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Final, as he prepares to return home to the UK after 22 years devoted to the game in Australia.
When the Isuzu UTE A-League resumes for its 21st season, it will do so without the voice that has narrated so many of the finest moments of its first two decades.
After 22 years in Australia, commentator Simon Hill has confirmed Saturday night’s Grand Final will be his final call Down Under, before a return home to the UK after more than two decades dedicated to the Australian game.
From SBS to Fox Sports and onto Network 10, Hill’s voice will forever be synonymous with the biggest moments that defined the first two decades of the Isuzu UTE A-League.
It’s only fitting that, as Hill takes to his perch in the commentary box at AAMI Park on Saturday night for his final game on Australian shores, he will experience one final A-Leagues first: a Melbourne Derby Grand Final between City and Victory – the first of its kind in Isuzu UTE A-League history.
“It’s a great way to go out,” Hill told aleagues.com.au.
“I don’t think I could have wished for a better fixture for my final A-League game. I’ve called plenty of Melbourne Derbies in the past, but never one in a Grand Final, so it should be a terrific game.
“How does it feel for me? A little bit strange at the moment, it’s all a bit surreal.
“The A-League has been a huge part of my life for the best part of 20 years. I’ll miss the competition, as frustrating as it is from time to time, but I’ll miss mostly the people involved in it. Being on the circuit and seeing people at grounds, and my colleagues at Network 10 as well, who’ve been brilliant to work with.
“It’s a strange feeling that I’m not going to be involved in it as of next season, but whilst I’m sad to go, I feel the timing is right.
“As I have pointed out to people, I’m not retiring, I’m not dying. I’m just moving. I’ve got things I’m looking forward to when I get back to the UK, not just with regards to football. I want to stay involved in the game, hoping to continue my commentary career. So it’s the end of a chapter, but hopefully not the end of the book just yet.
“It’s a competition that’s dominated virtually my every waking hour over the last few decades, good, bad and indifferent. So it’s a massive chunk of my life. I’ve given my best working years to this league, if you want to put it that way, through various employers.
“But more than that, it’s given back to me some of the best moments of my career, some wonderful memories, along with the national teams, they’ve they’ve obviously contributed as well. I’ve had some amazing moments with the Socceroos and the Matildas and some incredible trips overseas that were great life experiences as well as great football experiences.
“It’s been everything for me, really. I didn’t anticipate it when I first arrived here. It wasn’t sure that was going to be my story here, but I’m damn glad it was, because it’s been such a brilliant ride.
“I hope my football story is not finished, but my A-League story is coming to a close. I can only say thank you to everybody who not only gave me those opportunities but shared that journey with me.
“It’s going to be a sad day for me, but all good things come to an end, and I’m excited by the future.”
On Tuesday night, Hill announced his imminent return home to the UK. The reaction within the Australian football community since has blown him away.
Messages from colleagues, friends and the people he’s met along the way inundated his phone, along with messages from strangers, who associate his voice with the glorious moments immortalised in the history of their respective clubs.
“It’s been a little overwhelming in a really lovely way,” Hill said.
“It’s been nice to hear and read that perhaps I had a bit of an impact on their lives through football and accompanied those big moments. As football fans, we all live our lives in seasons, and can remember specific moments, where we were, because of the enormity of the occasion. And I’ve been fortunate enough, probably for a lot of people, to be the soundtrack behind that.
“I’d like to say a big thank you to the football community. They’ve been so brilliant with me, it’s truly been a surprise that so many people reached out on social media and with messages and everything else, to wish me well and say thank you. It’s been really lovely.
“It’s been very humbling to receive so many messages of goodwill. It’s nice to hear that some people will miss me, and I’ll certainly miss this environment.”
It’s an environment Hill never imagined he’d remain in for so long when he first arrived on Australian shores.
In 2001, Hill left the BBC, where he’d worked for the best part of a decade, to take on a job at ITV Digital. But within one year, ITV’s new digital platform went bust, leaving Hill searching for new opportunities.
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After a trip to the 2002 World Cup as a fan, Hill added an Australian stop to his holiday. Unbeknownst to him at the time, that decision was about to change his life forever.
“I had a friend of mine called Rob Mitchell, who worked for SBS radio, and I came over to see him on holiday in 2002 at the back end of the 2002 World Cup,” Hill said.
“At the time, he said, ‘Look, I think there’s a job going here as a commentator. You should go for it’.
“And I said, ‘Yeah, whatever. They don’t know who I am. Why would they want to employ me from the other end of the earth?’ But he went on about it so much that in the end, I said, ‘Look, when I go back to the UK, I’ll send a cover letter, a CV and a showreel’, and thinking that really would be the end of it.
“To my astonishment, within a couple of weeks, Ken Shipp, who I’m still in touch with at SBS, got back to me and said, ‘Look, we’re really interested in you. Would you be prepared to come out and live in Australia?’ I was a bit stunned by that, to be honest, but I needed a job.
“I didn’t have too many commitments, apart from a house in the UK at the time. So I thought, ‘Well, why not? Let’s, let’s go and do something different’, thinking it would be probably two or three years – and here I am, 22 years later.
“I think sometimes you’ve got to push yourself out of your comfort zone a little bit and take a risk, otherwise I wouldn’t have had all these wonderful experiences that I’ve had over the last 22 years that I never envisioned when I arrived in 2003.”
Hill’s initial years in Australia were spent at SBS, and while his role focused on the European game, the birth of the Isuzu UTE A-League in 2005 piqued his interest as he witnessed the competition explode into life in its first season.
“It was quite evident to me from the first weeks of the new competition that this was something that was going to resonate,” Hill said.
“I remember watching the coverage on Fox Sports, and just being so excited by seeing the crowds that turned up and the way that the game was covered, and I wanted to be a part of it desperately, because this was my sport, and I could see that something new and exciting was happening.
“So at the end of that year, of course, I went to the World Cup in 2006, which I desperately wanted to do. And fortunately for me, there was some interest from Fox. They wanted me to go across. So that’s what I did. And it was so exciting. It was a really magical time to be involved.”
Hill’s first A-Leagues call after joining Fox Sports from SBS was in Round 1 of the 2006-07 season. A near full house at the old Olympic Park was on hand to witness Melbourne Victory take on Adelaide United. Memories of that night live vividly in Hill’s mind – as does the sight of 50,000 fans at Docklands for a midweek Big Blue just four months later.
Hill called the first of his 15 Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Finals to date at the end of that season and, just like his first game in the commentary box, it was Victory against Adelaide in front of 56,000 fans.
Victory won 6-0, Archie Thompson scored five goals, and Kristian Sarkies – scorer of Victory’s sixth and final goal in a Grand Final thumping – kissed then-Prime Minister John Howard on the forehead as he collected his winners’ medal.
It remains to this day one of Hill’s favourite memories throughout his 19 seasons commentating in the Isuzu UTE A-League.
“The Grand Final in 2007 sticks in my brain,” he said. “I think there were 56,000 there at Docklands for Victory against Adelaide again, and John Howard was there, the Prime Minister. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, we’ve made it. We’re mainstream, baby’. There have been lots of ups and downs since then, obviously. But they were very, very exciting times.
“Certainly watching Ange’s ‘Roarcelona’, they were the best team I’ve watched.
“That Grand Final in 2011, the famous comeback against the Mariners – sorry, Mariners fans – that sticks in my brain as being one of the real great Grand Finals for drama, and for the unpredictability of the competition.
“Watching players like Thomas Broich, who’s still my favourite A-League player of all time, I think he was just magnificent. But others like Besart Berisha, who had a love/hate relationship with a lot of fans, what a character he was for the league. Diego Castro, just an absolute Rolls Royce of a player. Milos Ninkovic, ditto. So many good players.
“The 2015 Grand Final in Melbourne, the atmosphere that day was probably unrivaled. Maybe we’ll beat that on Saturday. Who knows?
“56,000 fans in Perth in 2019, Adelaide Oval in 2016, 50,000, Isaías’ free-kick. That was a great moment, because that call has been replayed over and over.”
That Isaías free-kick, and the three-word statement exclaimed by Hill on the commentary in its aftermath, remains one of his favourite moments in his commentary career.
“Si, señor, si!”
The goal, and the commentary, live together in an epic memory for Adelaide fans. Think of the goal, and think of the line. The two are intrinsically linked; they live in perfect harmony.
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“Sometimes you don’t realize the impact your words can have,” Hill said.
“Every time I go to Hindmarsh, I think there’s a banner behind the goal, it just says, ‘Si, señor, si’. I always look at that and think, blimey, that was something.
“And to be honest, I hadn’t planned to say that until the moment he struck the free kick. And with him being Spanish came into my head at that moment.
“Another one was Alessandro Del Piero’s first goal for Sydney.
“Del Piero! That’s what they came to see. That’s why Sydney FC paid the money. That is the measure of the man!”
“Thankfully, it was a 25-yard free kick and not one that went in off his backside. Otherwise, the line wouldn’t have worked.
“Sydney fans won’t thank me for this, but Terry Antonis’ goal for Victory in the Semi-Final. That’s been replayed a lot. I think they made T-shirts out of it at some point. ‘Giving chase forlornly’, I used to get text messages of just ‘forlornly’ for a while after that.
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“The World Cup 2006, the Timmy Cahill goals, Andrew Redmayne’s save in 2022 (‘Redmayne makes the save! It’s a save that means the world to Australia! It’s a save that means the World Cup for Australia!’), I was quite pleased with that line.
“There are a few, and probably a few I’ve forgotten as well to be honest. They’re nice memories to have.”
On Saturday night, the opportunity presents itself for Hill to create one final memory of his time in Australia, as he calls the action of an historic Melbourne Derby title decider – his 16th and final Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Final.
Then, it’s back to the UK, where Hill looks forward to continuing his commentary career. He looks forward to spending Christmas with his parents, both in their 90s, for the first time in more than 30 years. He looks forward to immersing himself back in the football culture in which he first caught the bug for the beautiful game.
Next season, the A-Leagues will enter its third decade without the voice that has defined it for so many years.
But not for one final night.
“I’m sure the enormity of it will hit me when I put the microphone down at the end of the Grand Final on Saturday.
“But whatever happens, there will always be a little part of me that will be not only Australian, but also a part of this league. And for that, I’m very grateful.
“I’m excited by it. I think it’s the best way for me to finish. A first-ever Melbourne Derby in a Grand Final is going to be something very special. I’ve seen that the sold-out sign has gone up already, which is absolutely brilliant. So it’ll be jumping on Saturday night, and I hope we get a game to match.
“And hopefully, I get the lines right for one last time.”
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