Music Journalist Mikey Cahill Revealed As Footy Mascot

Melbourne-based music journalist and musician Mikey Cahill (also known under the moniker of DJ Joey Lightbulb) does something else with his free time: he’s the Hawthorn Football Club mascot.

This week, The Guardian published an op-ed by Cahill entitled “Cheers and jeers, hugs and thugs: life as a sporting mascot is anything but predictable.” In it, he discusses his 19 years in the suit as Hawka.

In a statement to The Music, Cahill opened up about the challenges—and joys—of juggling his mascot side hustle with his jobs in music.

“It’s a lot of fun doing the juggle, but the juggle is real,” Cahill explains.

“I will say this—what’s scarier than getting punched in the face by a twelve-year-old Collingwood fan is putting up with drunken bridesmaids at 12:45 am who are insisting that they wanna hear Pitbull, and I have a strict no-Pitbull rule unless the bride or groom ask for it. So, that’s a bit of a peril of the job, but it’s all worth it!”

Cahill continued, “I love having a very, sort of non-linear career and jumping all over the shop. I actually look busier than I am,” he noted, adding that he gets to sleep in “a lot.”

“I’m a very, very lucky man and making the most of the opportunities that come my way,” he tells The Music. “And I hustle, hustle, hustle, so my advice to everybody—unsolicited—is you just gotta get your hustle on, okay?”

Hawka with Hawthorn supporters. Credit: Mikey Cahill

For Cahill, his side hustle as Hawka is always interesting. He receives group hugs from young children, punches from a pre-teen Collingwood supporter, and was unmasked at a particularly rough Legends Game.

“There’s always a good level of banter and camaraderie at AFL games but this crowd was particularly hostile,” he wrote for The Guardian, adding that he loves to shock people as Hawka. His standard jump-scare move? “Wait until they’re not looking, leap onto the fence with my hands (wings?) and put my menacing face within an inch of theirs. Works every time.”

However, the Legends Game was a “different beast.” Cahill recalled that a “cheeky rascal” ripped the Hawka head off him, unmasking him before the crowd.

“It took all my strength and a genuine tug-of-war to hoist myself over the fence, reach into the third row and wrest it back off him and three of his smartarse mates,” he wrote. “There was no way I would’ve retrieved it if it had gone further into the crowd. I was already imagining a YouTube clip going viral the next day: ‘Keepings Off Mascot as Hawka Loses His Shit.’”

Later in the piece, Cahill teased other tantalising run-ins as Hawka, including with former President of the Collingwood Football Club and commentator Eddie McGuire. But “Hawka needs to keep a few secrets.”

Closing the piece by sharing that he isn’t “really meant to talk,” Cahill reminded footy fans that mascots are there to have fun (and you with them), but don’t take things too far. “Hawka will eat your head, just don’t punch him in his,” he concluded.

When Cahill isn’t donning the Hawka suit, he’s busy being a journalist, DJ, MC, video creator, and trivia host. As DJ Joey Lightbulb, he recently performed at Golden Plains festival and opened for The Presets for their Live At The Gardens set.