{"id":189421,"date":"2025-10-04T10:41:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T10:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/189421\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T10:41:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T10:41:22","slug":"collingwood-forward-bobby-hill-and-jamarra-ugle-hagan-make-surprise-appearance-in-indigenous-victorian-football-carnival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/189421\/","title":{"rendered":"Collingwood forward Bobby Hill and Jamarra Ugle-Hagan make surprise appearance in Indigenous Victorian football carnival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Norm Smith medallist Bobby Hill has made a surprise return to competitive football and so has former No.1 draft pick Jamarra Ugle-Hagan and dumped <a class=\"css-1lg16vp-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/north-melbourne-kangaroos\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">North Melbourne<\/a> star Tarryn Thomas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The players have appeared in the Victorian Aboriginal Community Services Association Carnival in Cranbourne which started on Saturday, with Hill and Thomas representing the Fitzroy Stars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Hill was overlooked by <a class=\"css-1lg16vp-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/collingwood-magpies\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Collingwood<\/a> in this year\u2019s finals campaign after an interrupted year due to personal issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-178igh4-StyledParagraph e1s06mna1\">Know the news with the 7NEWS app: <a class=\"css-cvgehw-StyledContextualLink e1s06mna0\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/app?utm_source=7NEWS&amp;utm_medium=contextual-link-app&amp;utm_campaign=7news-app\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Download today <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/static\/media\/right-red-arrow.92bca5db.svg\" alt=\"Download today\" height=\"14\" width=\"20\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">His 40 minutes as the substitute in Collingwood\u2019s Round 21 loss to Brisbane was his only AFL exposure since June.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The 25-year-old sought approval from the Magpies and the AFL before entering the competition across this weekend.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1b69ffa468690e6528ab3af1d0383a832b377bc6-161x229-x0y0w370h526.jpg\" alt=\"Norm Smith medallist Bobby Hill has joined former North Melbourne star Tarryn Thomas in a game for Fitzroy Stars.\" class=\"css-16r7l45-StyledImage en5ut4d0\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"526\" width=\"370\"\/>Norm Smith medallist Bobby Hill has joined former North Melbourne star Tarryn Thomas in a game for Fitzroy Stars. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Ugle-Hagan is also playing in what is his first match at any level since the Western Bulldogs\u2019 2024 elimination final.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">His move to Gold Coast is progressing and needs approval from the Suns\u2019 board to proceed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Thomas last played for the Kangaroos in 2023 before he was banished from the AFL and unable to win a career lifeline.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Former Carlton and Adelaide champion Eddie Betts, who mentored Hill in the second half of the season, is also expected to play in the Carnival.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">And former AFL players Neville Jetta (Melbourne) and Jeff Garlett (Carlton and Melbourne) are also featuring.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">At his best, Hill is a star of the competition but he only managed 14 games this year when the personal issues forced him out the team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">He had ramped up his training in a desperate bid to feature at the pointy end of the season, but ultimately fell short.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Coach Craig McRae said at the time the decision not to play Hill was \u201cbased on a lot of little things\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">McRae did not totally rule Hill out of returning to the team for the grand final, but Collingwood failed to make it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI mentioned (the grand final) to him \u2014 keep training well, keep turning up, keep being here, being present, keep getting better every day as we always say,\u201d McRae said ahead of the preliminary final.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThere may be a world where that could be true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Hill attended <a class=\"css-1lg16vp-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/afl\/collingwood-coach-craig-mcrae-shredded-after-brownlow-medal-swipe-backfires-at-clubs-best-and-fairest-awards-c-20232707\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Collingwood\u2019s best-and-fairest count on Friday night<\/a>.  He has emphatically stated he will be remaining at Collingwood despite trade suggestions.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"css-6fiqrm-StyledLinkWrapper e1y7kr221\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/afl\/collingwood-coach-craig-mcrae-shredded-after-brownlow-medal-swipe-backfires-at-clubs-best-and-fairest-awards-c-20232707\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>Craig McRae shredded after Nick Daicos \u2018sniper\u2019 gag quickly backfires<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-xp0jgm-StyledTimeToRead e1y7kr223\">3 min read<\/p>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"css-6fiqrm-StyledLinkWrapper e1y7kr221\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/afl\/melbourne-contingent-including-jack-viney-and-steven-king-tour-waverley-park-ahead-of-caulfield-relocation-c-20226420\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>Melbourne vice-captain spotted touring rival facilities<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-xp0jgm-StyledTimeToRead e1y7kr223\">1 min read<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Norm Smith medallist Bobby Hill has made a surprise return to competitive football and so has former No.1&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,10133,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-189421","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-collingwood-magpies","14":"tag-sport","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189421","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=189421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}