{"id":401652,"date":"2026-01-09T09:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T09:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/401652\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T09:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T09:08:11","slug":"magpie-star-granted-leave-of-absence-from-afl-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/401652\/","title":{"rendered":"Magpie star granted leave of absence from AFL club"},"content":{"rendered":"

Collingwood star Bobby Hill has put his AFL career on hold with the club’s support, with no time-frame set for his return.<\/p>\n

The 2023 Norm Smith Medal winner is taking a leave of absence from the Magpies as he deals with personal issues.<\/p>\n

Bobby Hill has taken a leave of absence from Collingwood.\u00a0Photo by Robert Cianflone\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

After featuring in 13 games to start the season, Hill made just one AFL appearance in the final three months of Collingwood’s campaign – as a substitute.<\/p>\n

Collingwood were initially optimistic Hill had “got on top of” his off-field challenges last October, before confirming his leave of absence on Friday.<\/p>\n

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The decision was made jointly with Hill and his management. “We care for Bobby and his health and wellbeing remain the priority as he continues to work through his personal situation,” football boss Charlie Gardiner said in a statement. “While on leave from the AFL program, we will continue to support Bobby so that he can be in the best possible position to return to the Club in a full-time capacity when appropriate.”<\/p>\n

Hill had mounted a late bid to feature in last September’s finals, but was unable to get enough training and VFL minutes to make the team that was eliminated by Brisbane in a preliminary final.<\/p>\n

There was a brief run of trade speculation, before Collingwood list boss Justin Leppitsch reiterated Hill’s commitment to the Magpies during the trade period.<\/p>\n

West Australian product Hill, one of the most dynamic forwards in the competition, is contracted until 2030.<\/p>\n

“He’s at the club (next year). Bobby’s staying at the club,” Leppitsch said in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood star Bobby Hill has put his AFL career on hold with the club’s support, with no time-frame…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-401652","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\/401652","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=401652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}