{"id":835612,"date":"2026-07-31T12:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/835612\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T12:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:32:14","slug":"afl-star-bobby-hill-leaving-collingwood-by-mutual-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/835612\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL star Bobby Hill leaving Collingwood by mutual agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Collingwood star Bobby Hill is leaving the AFL club in a mutual decision after struggling with personal issues, four years before the end of his $3m contract.<\/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 executive general manager of football Charlie Gardiner said in a statement on Friday.<\/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.<\/p>\n

\u201cBobby will always be recognised as a premiership player and a Norm Smith medallist at Collingwood and we wish him all the very best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hill, who joined the Magpies form GWS ahead of the 2023 season, said he hoped the break would help him return to footy.<\/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 the 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, who kicked 33, 30 and 20 goals in his three seasons as a Magpie, was contracted until the end of the 2030 season.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old has been in and out of the Magpies\u2019 program for a year, playing only a handful of VFL games since round 21 last season.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Collingwood coach Craig McRae said a \u201cbattling\u201d Hill was a long way from playing.<\/p>\n

Hill had been granted a personal absence to deal with his relationship breakdown and relocation of his two young children.<\/p>\n

Collingwood had allowed Hill to spend time in Western Australia, where his former partner and children now live.<\/p>\n

He most recently took another portion of leave to be alongside his partner during her childbirth.<\/p>\n

Just last week, McRae spoke passionately about Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a premiership player and Norm Smith medallist, and he\u2019ll forever be welcome in our four walls \u2013 whatever that looks like and means for the future,\u201d McRae said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s the playing part, the high performance of what he\u2019s capable of doing for our team and for our supporter base. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then there\u2019s the personal part: He\u2019s a father \u2026 a young man with three kids. You want the best for all our players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally published as Bobby Hill, Collingwood \u2018mutually agree\u2019 to part ways<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood star Bobby Hill is leaving the AFL club in a mutual decision after struggling with personal issues,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[407470,241634,407488,377674,377658,377825,407472,386585,407482,407473,407497,376769,376925,377713,638,400079,407480,377719,407475,64,63,55,639,35200,14349,502,10990,387335,407479,407490,596,407492,9116,260185,39598,407489,909,407484,407496,376761,407463,380886,392401,407485,407467,407464,407469,13307,4689,387340,98637,29705,407493,43961,132144,387339,407495,403581,407476,407491,6622,141300,60765,5948,407478,2681,21224,407471,85,407481,407474,407468,407466,381352,398265,399808,382205,215379,131558,74713,407465,387328,407477,380430,389444,407483,407494,378870,407486,386823,364611,387809,6618,407487,3439],"class_list":["post-835612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-30-and-20-goals","tag-241634","tag-a-battling-hill","tag-a-break","tag-a-father","tag-a-long-way","tag-a-magpie","tag-a-mutual-decision","tag-a-norm-smith-medallist","tag-a-personal-absence","tag-a-premiership-player","tag-a-statement","tag-a-year","tag-a-young-man","tag-afl","tag-afl-star","tag-all-our-players","tag-an-update","tag-another-portion","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-bobby","tag-bobby-hill","tag-children","tag-collingwood","tag-collingwood-coach-craig-mcrae","tag-collingwood-star-bobby-hill","tag-executive-general-manager","tag-football","tag-football-charlie-gardiner","tag-footy","tag-four-years","tag-friday","tag-her-childbirth-just","tag-hill","tag-his-3m-contract","tag-his-commitments","tag-his-family","tag-his-former-partner","tag-his-future","tag-his-partner","tag-his-relationship-breakdown-and-relocation","tag-his-three-seasons","tag-his-two-young-children-collingwood","tag-last-season-earlier-this-year","tag-last-week","tag-leave","tag-mcrae","tag-memories","tag-millions","tag-my-passion","tag-newswire-sport","tag-norm-smith-medallist","tag-ongoing-personal-issues","tag-only-a-handful","tag-our-four-walls","tag-our-supporter-base","tag-our-team","tag-part","tag-part-ways","tag-personal-issues","tag-place","tag-playing-hill","tag-program","tag-round-21","tag-some-personal-matters","tag-sports","tag-support-structures","tag-the-2023-season","tag-the-2030-season-the-26-year-old","tag-the-afl-club","tag-the-best","tag-the-best-decision","tag-the-break","tag-the-club","tag-the-end","tag-the-future","tag-the-game","tag-the-high-performance","tag-the-magpies","tag-the-magpies-form-gws","tag-the-opportunity","tag-the-past-12-months","tag-the-personal-part","tag-the-playing-part","tag-the-statement","tag-the-very-best","tag-this-club","tag-this-year","tag-three-kids","tag-time","tag-vfl-games","tag-western-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835612","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=835612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}