After a season on the sidelines, Simon Hill is back in the commentary box and ready to do all he can to ensure Australian football reaches its full potential.
The iconic caller was recently signed up by Network 10 and ViacomCBS to call Socceroos and A-League matches moving forward having previously been let go by Fox Sports.
Hill remained involved in the game during his time away from television having started up The Shim, Spider and so much Moore podcast and also hosted radio football show The Global Game on SEN.
With his voice once again being broadcast across the country via Channel 10 and Paramount Plus, Hill is desperate to ensure Australian football succeeds and is grateful for the way it's embraced him since his arrival from England nearly two decades ago.
"What Australian football means to me is everything. I’m a newcomer to this country, relatively, I came here in 2003. It is a family, it’s taken me into their hearts and now I’m evangelical about it," Hill said via 10Football.
"I want it desperately to succeed and we know we have a lot of work ahead of us but we’ve got so much blue sky ahead and I passionately believe in that.
"What excites me most is we have just scratched the surface of our potential as a sport.
"When you look to just a few years ago we had 60,000 watching a Sydney derby, 40,000 plus watching a Melbourne derby, we had full houses for grand finals, for Big Blues, for the Socceroos, for the Matildas.
"The fans are there. People love this sport in Australia. We belong. We’ve just got to make that connection so the people that play the game and are passionate about it for their local club side or their overseas team, we’ve got to get them involved in the A-League and W-League, and we’re going to do that."
After his brief absence from covering the game in a broadcast capacity, Hill is excited to reconnect with football fans around the country.
"What I’m most looking forward to being part of the team is being back inside football stadiums every weekend - COVID permitting of course," he said.
"I’ve missed that. It's been a big gap in my life. To be around football people, to be around the game I’m passionate about and love, and to be involved in it on a day-to-day basis - there’s nothing like it.
"It’s the best job in the world."
With the new A-League season still over a month away, Hill was asked for his pre-season predictions and one thing he is confident of is a Melbourne Victory revival.
"My prediction for 2021-22 in the A-League is that Melbourne Victory are going to be an awful lot better," Hill said.
"Let’s be honest, they have to be after the wooden spoon last year and Tony Popovic certainly won’t stand for that. So Victory will be on the rise."