{"id":401734,"date":"2026-01-09T10:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T10:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/401734\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T10:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T10:01:09","slug":"afl-news-2026-bobby-hill-granted-leave-from-collingwood-magpies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/401734\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL news 2026 | Bobby Hill granted leave from Collingwood Magpies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Collingwood<\/a> forward Bobby Hill<\/a> has not returned for the club’s pre-season training, with confirmation that he is taking a leave of absence.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Magpies said the decision was made by Hill, his management and the club.<\/p>\n

Hill spent time away from the club late last season<\/a> to deal with personal issues.<\/p>\n

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The forward was not recalled to Collingwood’s team for the finals despite attempting a comeback.<\/p>\n

Hill last featured for the Magpies when he was the substitute against the Lions in round 22 and played 13 games over the season.<\/p>\n

\"Bobby<\/p>\n

Bobby Hill of the Magpies high-fives fans.\u00a0Josh Chadwick\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old’s personal situation has led to more time away from the club and football. <\/p>\n

“We care for Bobby and his health and wellbeing remain the priority as he continues to work through his personal situation,” Collingwood’s football boss Charlie Gardiner said.<\/p>\n

“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 won the 2023 Norm Smith medal in Collingwood’s grand final victory.<\/p>\n

Collingwood returned to training on Thursday and Friday with new development coach Dyson Heppell running drills. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood forward Bobby Hill has not returned for the club’s pre-season training, with confirmation that he is taking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-401734","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\/401734","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=401734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}