{"id":834581,"date":"2026-07-31T00:51:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T00:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/834581\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T00:51:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T00:51:21","slug":"afl-news-2026-bobby-hill-released-by-collingwood-magpies-for-personal-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/834581\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL news 2026, Bobby Hill released by Collingwood Magpies for personal issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFL<\/a> star Bobby Hill<\/a> plans to take a break from the game after being granted a release by Collingwood<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The club on Friday confirmed it had agreed to release the 2023 Norm Smith Medallist from the remainder of his contract, which ran until the end of 2030 and was reportedly worth $750,000 per season.<\/p>\n

\"Bobby<\/p>\n

Bobby Hill has left Collingwood.\u00a0Josh Chadwick\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Hill, 26, will become a delisted free agent and can be picked up by another club from next season.<\/p>\n

But he says he plans to step away from football to focus on issues in his personal life<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll always be proud to have been part of this club and thankful for the opportunity to represent Collingwood \u2013 I leave with memories I\u2019ll cherish forever,\u201d Hill said in a club statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to take a break from football to keep working on myself and regain my passion for the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hill began his AFL career at the Giants before heading to the Magpies, and was the best player on the field as Collingwood won the 2023 grand final.<\/p>\n

He only played half of last season with the Magpies and had not played any footy this year, only appearing at club headquarters sporadically.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club has been working with Bobby over the past 12 months to put support structures in place to help him work through some personal matters,\u201d Collingwood said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite this, Bobby has unfortunately struggled to meet his commitments to the club consistently this year and agreed that taking a break from football is the best decision for him and his family.\u201d<\/p>\n

The confirmation came just hours after Hill had called out a racist and abusive message someone had sent him on social media.<\/p>\n

Nine.com.au has chosen not to publish the message itself, but Hill reposted it to his own social media with the caption, \u201canyone know this tough guy?\u201c.<\/p>\n

Magpies coach Craig McRae was shocked to learn of the abuse directed at Hill, condemning it following Thursday night\u2019s loss to Geelong.<\/p>\n

\"Bobby<\/p>\n

Bobby Hill of the Magpies celebrates winning the Norm Smith Medal in 2023.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a crazy place at times, isn\u2019t it?\u201d McRae said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t do social media, so bear with me, but I did look at a website which had feedback, and the feedback is unbelievable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a cesspool for people just to vent. I find it fascinating that\u2019s actually something that people would be interested in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Bobby\u2019s listening there, I\u2019m sorry to hear that\u2019s the case. We\u2019ll always love him. It\u2019s sad to hear that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Magpies sit ninth on the AFL ladder and are fighting to make the league\u2019s new wildcard round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFL star Bobby Hill plans to take a break from the game after being granted a release by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-834581","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\/834581","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=834581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}