Ian "Bobby" Hill (born 9 February 2000) is an Australian rules footballer who plays for the

Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The club w ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL). He made his AFL debut with

Greater Western Sydney Greater Western Sydney (GWS) is a large region of the metropolitan area of Greater Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia that generally embraces the north-west, south-west, central-west, and far western sub-regions within Sydney's metropoli ...

in 2019. Hill was awarded the

Norm Smith Medal The Norm Smith Medal is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged the best on ground in the Grand Final of the Australian Football League (AFL). Prior to 1990 the competition was known as the Victorian Football ...

in the 2023 AFL Grand Final.

Early life

Hill is an Indigenous man with

Whadjuk Whadjuk, alternatively Witjari, are Noongar (Aboriginal Australian) people of the Western Australian region of the Perth bioregion of the Swan Coastal Plain. Name The ethnonym appears to derive from ''whad'', the Whadjuk word for "no". Countr ...

- Ballardong

Noongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...

ancestry. Named after his father, Hill prefers to be called ''Bobby''. Born in

Northam, Western Australia Northam () is a town in the Australian state of Western Australia, situated at the confluence of the Avon and Mortlock Rivers, about east-northeast of Perth in the Avon Valley. At the 2016 census, Northam had a population of 6,548. Northa ...

, Hill attended

Northam Senior High School Northam Senior High School is a comprehensive public co-educational high school, located in Northam, a regional centre in the Wheatbelt region, east of Perth, Western Australia. History The school was established in 1921 and by 2020 had an ...

, before completing his high school education in Perth at Wesley College as part of their Indigenous Scholarship Program. He first came to notice when he was selected in the Western Australia under 16s.

AFL career

Hill was selected by

(GWS) at pick #24 in the 2018 national draft. He made his senior debut against

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

in round 17 of the 2019 season. Hill played 41 games with the club including a winning preliminary final in 2019, and is known for his blistering pace, clean hands and the ability to leap in the air after the football. Hill designed GWS's 2020 Indigenous jumper, which is worn by them as an alternative strip. During the 2021 trade period Hill put his name forward requesting a trade to , but no deal could be reached. The following year he again requested a trade to Victoria, this time to , and was traded on 3 October. Hill played a major role in Collingwood's 2023 premiership season, and topped his year off with what was described as an "incredible performance" in the

grand final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

. Facing Brisbane, Hill collected 18 disposals and kicked 4.2 to collect all 15 votes to win the

, as Collingwood defeated Brisbane by four points.

Health issues

In May 2022, Hill was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He had surgery and spent the rest of the year recovering.

Personal life

Hill is the cousin of

Bradley Bradley is an English surname derived from a place name meaning "broad wood" or "broad meadow" in Old English. Like many English surnames Bradley can also be used as a given name and as such has become popular. It is also an Anglicisation of t ...

and Stephen Hill. Another of his cousins is

Gerald Ugle Gerald Ugle (born 31 January 1993) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Greater Western Sydney Giants in the Australian Football League (AFL). Ugle has several relatives with AFL experience; former West Co ...

, one of the inaugural GWS players. Other cousins include former and Josh Hill, and Leon Davis who played at .

Statistics

''Updated to the end of the 2023 season''. , - ,

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, , , , 37 , 8 , , 7 , , 5 , , 49 , , 29 , , 78 , , 18 , , 22 , , 0.9 , , 0.6 , , 6.1 , , 3.6 , , 9.8 , , 2.3 , , 2.8 , - ,

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

, , , , 37 , 5 , , 4 , , 5 , , 28 , , 15 , , 43 , , 10 , , 11 , , 0.8 , , 1.0 , , 5.6 , , 3.0 , , 8.6 , , 2.0 , , 2.2 , - ,

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

, , , , 37 , 17 , , 14 , , 12 , , 113 , , 41 , , 154 , , 33 , , 48 , , 0.8 , , 0.7 , , 6.6 , , 2.4 , , 9.1 , , 1.9 , , 2.8 , - ,

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

, , , , 37 , 11 , , 9 , , 8 , , 62 , , 32 , , 94 , , 24 , , 24 , , 0.8 , , 0.7 , , 5.6 , , 2.9 , , 8.5 , , 2.2 , , 2.2 , - , bgcolor=F0E68C ,

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

^# , , , , 23 , 24 , , 33 , , 14 , , 75 , , 247 , , 78 , , 56 , , 48 , , 1.3 , , 0.6 , , 6.9 , , 3.1 , , 10.0 , , 3.0 , , 2.2 , - class=sortbottom ! colspan=3 , Career ! 65 !! 67 !! 44 !! 424 !! 192 !! 616 !! 163 !! 161 !! 1.0 !! 0.7 !! 6.5 !! 3.0 !! 9.5 !! 2.5 !! 2.5 Notes

References

External links

*
Bobby Hill
from AFL Tables {{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Bobby 2000 births Living people Greater Western Sydney Giants players Collingwood Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Western Australia Perth Football Club players People from Northam, Western Australia Indigenous Australian players of Australian rules football People educated at Wesley College, Perth Norm Smith Medal winners VFL/AFL premiership players