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<\/p>\nMatt Hill is set to become the latest Northern Territory-born footballer to reach the AFL.<\/p>\n
The Katherine product will make his AFL debut for Hawthorn against Melbourne in Launceston on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Hill has been called into the senior team after star small forward Nick Watson was ruled out due to hamstring tightness.<\/p>\n
It marks a major moment for the 22-year-old, who has taken a unique path to the top level.<\/p>\n
The Ballardong, Wardandi, Gajerrong and Bunuba man from Katherine joined Hawthorn as a Category B rookie at the end of 2024 after spending time in rugby league pathways.<\/p>\n
Before arriving at the Hawks, Hill was part of the Melbourne Storm Academy and its First Nations Pathways Program.<\/p>\n
He also played for the Storm in the Jersey Flegg Cup, the U21 competition based in New South Wales, and spent time in the Brisbane Broncos’ development squad.<\/p>\n
Hawthorn recruiting and list manager Mark McKenzie highlighted Hill’s athletic profile and football background when he first joined the club.<\/p>\n
“Matt has shown in his young sporting career that he is a naturally gifted athlete with exciting speed, in addition to playing several years of footy as a junior, he has immense potential,” McKenzie said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Matt Hill (left), alongside Indigenous footy legend Stephen Michael and Hawks teammate Karl Amon. Image: Stephen Sciacovelli (Hawthorn FC).<\/p>\n
Hill played Australian rules as a teenager and was invited to train with the Gold Coast Suns Academy when he was 15.<\/p>\n
He also has strong football bloodlines.<\/p>\n
Hill has family connections to Brad Hill, Bobby Hill, Toby Bedford, Jy Farrar, Ash Johnson and Shane McAdam, as well as the Pickett and Garlett families.<\/p>\n
Since joining Hawthorn, Hill has continued to build his game through Box Hill in the VFL.<\/p>\n
The 187cm forward has shown speed, pressure and attacking flair at state league level.<\/p>\n
He has kicked 28 goals from 30 VFL matches, including three goals from 10 disposals and eight tackles for Box Hill last weekend.<\/p>\n
That performance again showed his ability to impact the scoreboard while also applying strong defensive pressure.<\/p>\n
Hawthorn will travel to Launceston without Watson and veteran forward Jack Gunston.<\/p>\n
Watson did not play after halftime in last Friday night’s win over GWS, with coach Sam Mitchell later saying the move was precautionary.<\/p>\n
The young forward has kicked 39 goals this season, placing him equal second in the Coleman Medal race behind Gold Coast spearhead Ben King.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matt Hill is set to become the latest Northern Territory-born footballer to reach the AFL. The Katherine product…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,366018,64,63,55,639,4428,6854,18589,4896,19117,4466,158,85],"class_list":["post-769739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-afl-indigenous","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-brisbane-broncos","tag-hawthorn","tag-hawthorn-football-club","tag-katherine","tag-matt-hill","tag-melbourne-storm","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769739","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=769739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}