Australian Football
Bobby Hill: Get to know the AFL sensation with speed and one mighty leap!
AFL star Bobby Hill is a proud dad, Premiership hero & Indigenous trailblazer - grounded, humble, and driven by family, culture and footy. His journey's only just getting started.
Collingwood forward Bobby Hill has a modest manner. If you didn’t know the decorated career he had built in the AFL, he could be mistaken for a regular Dad, with a disarming dry humour that makes you warm to him immediately.
The 25-year-old lights up when asked about his two children, Malakai (one) and Bobby (three), and volunteers that Bobby “runs around like he owns the place” and Malakai “doesn’t do much yet.”
He credits his partner, Georgia Devlin on doing the “grunt work” in raising the boys but speaks fondly of the “free babysitters” at the Footy Club who treat his sons like family.
“When the kids come to sing the song after a game it feels like a country footy game, the club say I can have the kids in with me whenever I can so it's good, it feels like a big family.”
“Bob runs around with me, I'm in training a lot… but he knows where everything is, he knows where the snacks are, so I could just leave him knowing that one of the boys will walk past and help him out,” Hill said.
Bobby Hill
© Samuel Costin/Red Bull Content Pool
A quick scroll of his Instagram pages shows bike rides and playground dates with his family, bike rides with young Bobby Jnr and relaxed photos of his family of four nestled beside their dog.
A deeper dive shows examples of teammates Beau McCreery cradling Malakai while Hill attends to media interviews in the rooms post-game and fellow Magpies Nick Daicos and Isaac Quaynor playing with Bobby Jnr at training.
The connection has to the club and his teammates is tangible when he speaks about them, and it’s not long before he’s audibly grinning at how they interact with his young family.
Hill made his AFL debut for the GWS Giants in 2019, playing forty-one games with the Giants before being traded to Collingwood for season 2023.
In hindsight, a good move you’d imagine he thought, as he lifted the Premiership Cup with his teammates that September.
However, it wasn’t that way in the beginning as he toyed with a move to Essendon the year before which eventually fell through.
The explosive forward claimed the Gordon Coventry Trophy for Collingwood's leading goalkicker in 2024 and was also crowned the 2024 Mark of the year winner, he’s lauded as one of the stars of the league and yet repeatedly asserts that he “just wants to play footy.”
Unsurprisingly, Hill has recently signed a four-year contract extension which will see the 25-year-old remain in the black and white stripes until the end of 2030, which he says is a relief to have under the belt.
“I just wanted to play footy and now I don't have to worry about getting asked if I'm leaving or not all the time,” Hill laughed.
Hill began his 2025 Season as part of the Indigenous All-Stars squad, a group of players which was pulled together from across the league.
The pre-season game is a way to highlight the depth of Indigenous talent across the league in a concentrated manner and celebrate Indigenous culture and traditions.
Hill lined up alongside a star-studded squad including fellow AFL stars Charlie Cameron, Kysaiah Pickett, Steven May, Izak Rankine and Jason Horne-Francis.
Bobby Hill poses for a portrait during a photo session in Melbourne
© Samuel Costin
The All-Stars defeated Fremantle in a 43-point win at Optus Stadium in front of 37,865 enraptured fans, and in the characteristic words of Hill, “we ended up smashing them”.
Fellow All-Star Jy Simpkin was awarded the Polly Farmer medal for a best on ground performance while Hill came third in the votes after opening the game with a spectacular snap goal around the body, then fittingly celebrating with a traditional dance, before posting a further three majors that night.
There has been widespread discussion on making the all-stars game a regular feature on the AFL fixture, something which Hill firmly backs.
“ It was very special to be a part of, obviously it’s been 10 years since the last one, and I remember watching that one then and in my head thinking, ‘I want to be part of that, and hopefully play when I make it.”
“It obviously took a fair bit of time and ten years later we end up playing the game and to have my friends and family and alongside boys that you wouldn’t otherwise play alongside was a huge honour.
“Hopefully we can play the next one and it doesn’t take that long.”
The dichotomy of playing in a team with athletes you are set to fight against for a Premiership wasn’t lost on Hill, but the importance of the occasion meant it was a bonding experience for the All-Stars squad.
“That has fun, it made it enjoyable, it’s one game I’ll look back on when I'm done and get to reflect on that,” Hill said.
Bobby Hill poses for a portrait during a photo session in Melbourne
© Samuel Costin
“We only had two days together and so to have those two days with each other and play like that, all the time spent together was really fun.”
Hill knows the AFL system is about more than just winning games, although he has done a lot of that, and the depth of his respect for the game, and the people in it is evident.
The 2023 Norm Smith Medallist clearly hasn’t let success get to his head and continues to look at the significance of his heritage and the important role he plays in advocating for further opportunities for Indigenous kids.
“I mean, it’s hard because everyone’s different and each footy club is too, but I think the AFL do it pretty perfectly,” Hill said on honouring First Nations people.
Having seen fellow Indigenous players undergo racism and vitriol both on field and online, Hill says it’s something he is wary of but tries to separate himself from the noise.
“It’s hard when you do things like read the (social media) comments but you try and block out the comments and what people say on photos. I pretty much stay off the comments and don’t read into.”
Approaching his hundredth game, Hill reflects on his journey in footy fondly.
To play just one game at an AFL club was the hope, but obviously one hundred is great, and after this I have another fifty with Collingwood
“I hope my boys can be playing too hopefully, so it’s a good milestone but there’s many more games I want to be playing as well.”
The Annual Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round kicks off with a blockbuster between the Gold Coast Suns and Hawthorn on Thursday May 15 at TIO Stadium in Darwin and is a highlight of Hill’s year.
“For me it’s a very important round, I tick it off on every calendar that I want to play in that game and get up for it every year,” said Hill.
“It’s a game I always wanted to be a part of when I was running around when I was younger, but to get to kick a goal and do a dance is very meaningful for my family and the Indigenous community, so hopefully I do that.”
On how the clubs and the league endeavour to educate and honour Indigenous Australians, Hill says a lot of it is engrained in the culture and understanding of his fellow teammates.
“We have a lot of boys and their family members who are passionate about it, we’ve got Steele Sidebottom who makes you feel at home and he’s always with me having lunch and that’s one of the reasons why I picked number 23 (Sidebottom’s is 22) because he just makes you feel comfortable in the way he talks and he gets it because he’s been around a lot of players like Andrew Krakoeur and others for a long time.
“Darcy Cameron calls us cousin and everything so it’s pretty cool hearing that from the boys and they always make you feel welcome.”
Hill will play his 98th game during the Sir Doug Nicholls round, when the Magpies face the Adelaide Crows at the MCG, in front of his family and friends.