Josh Battle opens up on St Kilda departure, family and his new life at the Hawks

Josh Battle’s future was a key topic of conversation across the 2024 AFL season. The new Hawk opens up to Scott Gullan about just how hard it was to leave St Kilda for Hawthorn.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – JULY 07: Andrew Bassat, President of St Kilda Football Club celebrates with Josh Battle of the Saints during the round 17 AFL match between St Kilda Saints and Sydney Swans at Marvel Stadium, on July 07, 2024, in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images)

Josh Battle’s first official task as a Hawthorn player was to produce a slide show.

Having homework before he’d even met the majority of his new teammates or the club’s football staff is an unusual introduction but in many ways it fits in with the reasons why he will be wearing the brown and gold in 2025.

Battle is all about striving to get better every day, he talks about it a lot, listens to podcasts, researches different methods for mental and physical wellbeing. It’s become his thing.

So going to New Zealand to see how other major sports chase success is right in his wheelhouse.

A Hawthorn contingent led by coach Sam Mitchell and including Will Day, Jai Newcombe, backline coach Kade Simpson and head of development David McKay went on the reconnaissance mission last month across the Ditch.

Battle is now at the Hawks after crossing from St Kilda. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Everyone was tasked with organising one day where they took the group to visit a NZ sporting body. Through an old St Kilda strength and conditioning coach, Battle was put in contact with rugby union team The Crusaders.

He organised a series of meetings with the Crusaders hierarchy including coaches, the management and marketing team and high performance staff.

The Hawks visited the New Zealand cricket team and Olympic rowing team plus there was also a cultural day where they learned the Kiwi traditions.

“I am super interested in learning how other sports codes and athletes prepare, and what they do to get the best out of themselves,” Battle says. “We took a few things out of how they do it and how they implement them.

“It’s funny because while all sports are so different, in many ways they’re so similar.”

Battle had to explain what he got out of the visit in a slide show which was presented to the football department on his first official day as a Hawk last week.

“Keeping things simple,” he says, was one of the key points of his presentation.

Ironically for Battle, his journey to Hawthorn has been anything but simple.

“I think when you’re in that environment … ” Battle’s words drift away.

He’s talking about the different pathways life can take you and how some people are lucky enough to be presented opportunities. He was one of them.

Battle spent eight seasons at the Saints. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Battle grew up around Berwick and Narre Warren, his parents separated when he was young, he was close to his older brother Nick and says the family “made it work and we loved it”.

The “environment” he references is Fountain Gate High School which wasn’t for the faint hearted. He survived on being good at sport and it proved to be his escape route although ironically it was through cricket.

A scholarship to Haileybury College for Year 9 was presented after the prestigious private school’s head of cricket saw Battle playing in a local tournament.

He was initially reluctant but his father, Tony, was adamant he had to take it. “Dad pushed me a lot to take it on as I think he knew what it meant and what doors it could open,” he says.

“It was such a big decision to make at the time, I was happy just doing my thing and I really didn’t enjoy it at the start but in the end I was super thankful that I took the opportunity.”

Once at Haileybury it was his football skills which caught the eye of former Essendon champion Matthew Lloyd, who at the time was the assistant coach of the school’s football team.

Three years later Battle was on an AFL list and then did Year 12 during his first season at St Kilda in 2017 after being drafted at No. 39 the previous November.

It’s these life experiences which are behind Battle’s drive to explore ways to help underprivileged kids and he has recently reached out to a number of different charities about what he can do.

Josh Battle with his partner Casey Ollie and daughters Billie (4) and Bobbi (7 months) and Edithvale beach. Picture: Michael Klein

“I am passionate about helping kids that are a little bit underprivileged,” he explains. “I think I was given a few opportunities to leave, I got to go to a good school and I have always never taken it for granted.

“You look back and see people who are a bit underprivileged who don’t get those opportunities, I want to help them the best I can.

“To an extent I can relate a little bit, I went to public school and a secondary school which was pretty basic and then I got the opportunity to go to Haileybury which I’m super grateful for.

“Others didn’t get that and just the impact it had on me, some of the behaviours and core values you’re taught, things that you can instil in yourself for the rest of your life.”

Like many teenagers thrust into the limelight of AFL football, Battle says he “floated around” in the first few years of his career which started as a forward at the Saints.

The turning point came when he switched to defence and former Geelong premiership star Corey Enright arrived at the Saints as an assistant coach at the end of 2021.

“I was struggling a bit with injuries, I had surgery recurring three years in a row on ankles and stress fractures,” Battle says. “Corey came in and he was really good for me, it was a fresh set of eyes and I remember him saying don’t overcomplicate things.

“From then on I started to nail my preparation and really changed my outlook on life.”

His life started to change a lot at the beginning of the year when Hawthorn came knocking. Battle was coming out of contract and was an unrestricted free agent in 2024 given it was his eighth year in the system.

When asked about the process he went through in deciding to leave St Kilda, Battle looks over at his partner Casey and their seven-month-old daughter Bobbi who is keeping the diners in the South Yarra cafe amused with her cheeky smile.

“It was definitely one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in my life,” he says. “To be honest I was lucky as we just had Bobbi, there was a lot going on at home so the distraction wasn’t as big as it may have seemed.

“Case has been amazing and we knew we’d get to the end of the year and really nut it out, have a good think about what is best for us, what is best for the future.

“I can’t underestimate how big the decision was.”

Before Battle begins talking about Hawthorn, he wants to emphasise the love he has for the St Kilda Football Club – he played 123 games – and how much coach Ross Lyon helped him with not only his football career but as a person. (He even sent a text to emphasise the point the night after the interview).

The 26-year-old had his best year at the Saints, finishing third in the best and fairest, but at the end of the season he still hadn’t made up his mind.

Battle says leaving St Kilda is one of the hardest things he has ever done. Picture: Kelly Defina/Getty Images

“I think Case was starting to get a little frustrated with not knowing,” he says. “I just said I don’t really know myself at the moment so I’m not going to say something out loud that I don’t want to go through with.

“I knew at the end of the season I could take the emotion out of it and have a clear picture and then I did it. I remember saying to Case: ”I’m going to go to Hawthorn”. And she was like ‘Whoa’.“

So in the end, why?

“That’s a good question,” he says before pausing. “I think I was ready for the new challenge, I’d been at the Saints for eight years, loved my time there, I just think right now the direction I am heading in, what is best for my family environment.

“I feel like the values and morals align the way the Hawks hold themselves, in terms of what I connected with kind of there, what Sam (Mitchell) underpins.

“I have got a young family, there is a difference between kind of saying you’re the family club and then acting upon it, that was the main thing.”

Ross Lyon and Josh Battle. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Mitchell and his wife, Lyndall, met the Battle clan – which includes four-year-old Billie who Casey had from a previous relationship – and not only sold the football vision but emphasised more about taking care of family.

“I am super interested in learning, trying to get the best out of myself, how much more I can develop as a player, the room for scope in growing as a person, a Dad, a husband. He (Mitchell) spoke a lot about that.

“One of the main things in the way I changed in the last few years is my outlook on life, what I want to get out of the game and my life and it’s about pursuing excellence each day.

“It’s dark but I feel like everyone has got their own personal legend to an extent and you have got to pursue your own personal goals.”

Sounds like a good slide show.

Originally published as Josh Battle opens up on St Kilda departure, family and his new life at the Hawks