{"id":155013,"date":"2025-09-19T19:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T19:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/155013\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T19:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T19:33:09","slug":"collingwood-magpies-cult-hero-billy-frampton-on-dealing-with-online-hate-after-2023-premiership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/155013\/","title":{"rendered":"Collingwood Magpies cult hero Billy Frampton on dealing with online hate after 2023 premiership"},"content":{"rendered":"

But it\u2019s taken him until this season to find enough belief in himself that one mistake or a below par game no longer sparks the sort of negative thoughts which afflict many elite athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, especially. I\u2019ve delved a lot more into the mental and emotional space to try to find a lot more solid ground for myself, which has helped a lot,\u201d Frampton said.<\/p>\n

\"Billy<\/p>\n

Billy Frampton played a critical role in the 2023 flag as a defensive forward on Harris Andrews.Credit: Paul Rovere<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the biggest ones [is] trying to be able to put mistakes behind me. It\u2019s something I really battled with through my career and I\u2019ve spoken to a lot of people about that, and how I can make an error and then get back on with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always been something that\u2019s lingered with me. I\u2019ve always wanted to do everything really well, and that can spiral pretty quickly in footy especially when you\u2019re playing on good forwards who get the ball targeted at them 15 times a game.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou only need to be off a couple of times, and it can go south so finding ways to push through that and just trying to enjoy every bit of footy and not ride the ups and downs, not have the pressure on yourself all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s testament to his resilience that he has persevered while enduring a battle common to many high achievers for much of his career.<\/p>\n

After arriving at Port Adelaide from South Fremantle via the last selection in the 2014 national draft (pick 84) that wasn\u2019t an academy or father-son addition he waited four years before making his debut in the final match of 2018.<\/p>\n

He joined Adelaide in 2020 and spent two seasons there before landing at Collingwood in 2022 under new coach Craig McRae, one of the low cost talls recruited along with Darcy Cameron, Jeremy Howe and the sidelined Dan McStay that have underpinned McRae\u2019s premiership pushes.<\/p>\n

During that time Frampton, who is known to have an inquisitive mind, rode football\u2019s inevitable rollercoaster as if he was on a bucking bull in a rodeo.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of going down that negative pathway, [it\u2019s about] trying to come back to a positive immediately as soon as I have an error\u2026it\u2019s become a bit of a habit for me over time, which is helpful. [It\u2019s] helped me so much to be able to not let one become two and be able to nip things in the bud,\u201d Frampton said.<\/p>\n

\"Frampton<\/p>\n

Frampton gets ready for the preliminary final.Credit: Joe Armao<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old speaks with disarming honesty as he reflects on the loop he once endured. The lightness of his tone, however, shows such emotions are in the past even as he describes how the pattern of mistakes and axings played on his mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI [could] just get these things running in your head a little bit and it just sets you on the wrong path, and one thing goes wrong, and then it\u2019s like here we go, \u2018I am going to play shit again, I\u2019m gonna be out of side again\u2019, and then it\u2019s just that constant. I don\u2019t know how many times I\u2019ve been dropped in my career, but I\u2019d have to be right up there,\u201d Frampton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to break that has been really tough [but I have reached] a place where it is not even on my radar. If those situations come around, I\u2019m a lot more grounded and confident in myself to be able to deal with them and, I guess, mentally, it\u2019s just more of a nice place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not that playing in the backline in front of close to 100,000 people is many people\u2019s idea of a nice place to be. But it is to Frampton who has made the leap under the calm, respected tutelage of Jordan Roughead, who remains an unsung hero at the Magpies. Frampton has found his niche in defence alongside Darcy Moore and Jeremy Howe.<\/p>\n

\"Frampton<\/p>\n

Frampton at training with Jordan De Goey this week.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

And he has become a true believer, in himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is probably the first time that I\u2019ve really felt, I guess, sure of myself in my role and I\u2019m very clear in the system, what I need to be doing at all times, feeling confident to be able to make calls on the fly and communicate with my teammates and feel sure of myself,\u201d Frampton said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEverything feels just a lot more stable for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much better suited to defence as he runs in straight lines and reads the ball better when reacting to opposition cues, Frampton is a player of substance in an era of style.<\/p>\n

His grand final battle with Andrews is part of Collingwood folklore but on Saturday Frampton will be at the other end of the ground as he tries to move one step closer to becoming a premiership defender and a flag-winning forward.<\/p>\n

Here comes Billy, 10 years after he arrived.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But it\u2019s taken him until this season to find enough belief in himself that one mistake or a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-155013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}