{"id":459372,"date":"2026-02-05T05:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T05:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/459372\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T05:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T05:09:10","slug":"why-craig-mcrae-and-the-collingwood-magpies-are-not-planning-on-the-return-of-norm-smith-medal-winner-bobby-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/459372\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Craig McRae and the Collingwood Magpies are not planning on the return of Norm Smith Medal winner Bobby Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Collingwood are not factoring Bobby Hill into their plans for the season, with the small forward still yet to resume training.<\/p>\n

The club has not ruled Hill out. But a month out from their first game of the 2026 season, Hill is yet to return to training and there are no indications the 2023 Norm Smith medallist<\/a> will return in the short-to-medium term as he battles personal issues, according to three sources with knowledge of his situation speaking on the condition of anonymity due to its sensitivity.<\/p>\n

\"Bobby<\/p>\n

Bobby Hill with Collingwood coach Craig McRae in preliminary final week last season.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Given his open-ended absence, the Magpies can\u2019t plan for him this season, but figure if he gets back this year it will be a bonus.<\/p>\n

Hill earns around $750,000 per year and is contracted until 2030 after signing a four-year contract extension in April last year. He had originally been contracted until the end of this year.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

Hill has now de-conditioned to such an extent that he will require months of training to get back to a level capable of playing football, and would then need a period in the VFL before any senior return. Even if he returned to the club in the next week, it would be mid-season at the earliest before he would be ready to play, and there are no short-term plans for him to return.<\/p>\n

Hill\u2019s estranged partner, who is now pregnant, is back in Perth. While Hill is living in Melbourne, he is not training. He has regularly been seen out at Melbourne venues.<\/p>\n

The club announced in early January the small forward had again taken an indefinite leave from the club after he didn\u2019t return for pre-season training after Christmas. Hill had sporadically trained prior to Christmas.<\/p>\n

\"Hill<\/p>\n

Hill is one of the game\u2019s most electrifying players.Credit: AFL Photos<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood are not factoring Bobby Hill into their plans for the season, with the small forward still yet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-459372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459372","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=459372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}