The shocking death of Terry Hill on Wednesday has evoked memories of Shane Warne’s sudden passing for many Australian sports fans.
The football world is in mourning after cult hero Hill passed away at the age of 52, having enjoyed an incredible career with Manly, NSW and the Kangaroos.
Known as one of the most colorful characters in the game, he was a regular on Channel Nine’s The Footy Show during its most successful years and will also be remembered by fans for his starring appearances in Lowes menswear adverts.
Tributes have poured in for the affable former football star as a result, while some fans couldn’t help but draw comparisons to Hill’s death and Warne’s passing in March 2022.
Warne, like Hill, died of a heart attack aged just 52, shocking the cricket world. He later had a stand named after him at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and has been celebrated around the world.
Rugby league legend Terry Hill died of a heart attack in the Philippines
Former New South Wales and Kangaroos star Hill has died aged 52
Spin King died while in Thailand and Hill also died overseas, passing away in the Philippines. The former rugby league star was married to a Filipino woman and was away from her home in Sydney for a few weeks.
‘He had been there [the Philippines] “I was out for a couple of weeks and I rang a mate and told him he wasn’t feeling well,” former team-mate Craig Coleman told Nine.
“The officer told him to go to bed…apparently he went to sleep and never woke up.”
Hill played 246 games in a club career that saw him run for Souths, Easts, Wests, Manly and Wests Tigers, as well as playing 14 games for NSW and a further nine for his country.
Born in the inner western Sydney suburb of Newtown, he made his first grade debut for Souths in 1990, moved to Easts in 1991, then Western Suburbs in 1992 before finding his home in football with Manly in 1994.
He excelled in the Sea Eagles’ centers for six seasons, helping them to premiership glory in 1996, and then returned to the club to finish his career in 2005 after playing 49 games for the Wests Tigers over four years.
Hill was at the center of one of the modern game’s defining dramas when he was selected to play for Easts in 1991 despite having previously signed to join Wests.
He and other players took legal action against the game’s then governing body, the NSWRL, for restraint of trade and won their case in the High Court after a long battle.
The circumstances of Hill’s death have drawn comparisons to the death of Shane Warne.
“Those players were very brave men because they had no financial support and they all put their names on the line, which meant they put their houses on the line, because if they had lost the League I would have pursued them with the costs,” said the footballer. said great lawyer Kevin Ryan of Hill and his fellow stars.
Hill, nicknamed ‘Tezza’, made his representative debut for City in 1993, the same year he first broke into the Blues State of Origin team.
He was first selected for his country for the 1994 Kangaroo tour and scored a try when he made his international debut against New Zealand in 1995.
Top try scorer in the ARL competition at the height of the Super League war in 1997, he moved to the Tigers in 2000 but managed only 49 appearances in four seasons with the club, before returning to Brookvale to play the last 16 games of his first grade career in 2005.
He then gave back to the sport that made him famous by coaching country clubs in Umina and Kincumber.
Hill’s Manly teammate and league legend David Gillespie revealed he saw his teammate in the Philippines shortly before his death while raising money for an orphanage.
“I was with Terry last week,” he told the publication.
Tributes have poured in for the popular and charismatic former rugby league star.
‘He was the same as always, the life of the party.
“Terry was doing well and had everyone in suspense at the fundraiser. His death is sudden, unexpected and incredibly sad. He was a very generous person.
‘As a player, Terry was relentless, tough and uncompromising. He would give it and receive it.
Des Hasler, Hill’s teammate and later coach at Manly, told WhatsNew2Day Australia: “So young. I think he had some health problems. He had quite a decorated career. A real goofball. He certainly enjoyed football.
The Sea Eagles paid tribute to the great club in a statement issued shortly after news of his death was made public.
“Terry was a much-loved and respected figure not only at the Sea Eagles, but throughout rugby league, where he played for a number of clubs,” Manly chief executive Tony Mestrov said.