Collingwood small forward Bobby Hill opens up on cancer, fatherhood and his move from GWS to Collingwood

In all likelihood, Hill heeding that advice is the reason that on Sunday the small forward will play his 50th AFL game. Making it to that milestone or not might have been the least of his worries had Hill waited too much longer to respond to the discomfort in his testicle last year.

Very few players get to the 50-game mark with the sort of life experience Hill has collected in his 23 years and three months on the planet.

A foiled trade request to Essendon, becoming a father at 22, an eventual move to Collingwood … and a cancer battle.

“It took a while. I’m very grateful to play 50 games in the AFL,” Hill says ahead of Sunday’s date with Greater Western Sydney at the MCG, also his first meeting with the club that drafted him from Perth in 2018.

Hill, who has had to grow up very quickly, is mature and reflective enough to accept that he did not make every post a winner during his time at the Giants.

Off-field there were some missteps, as he came to terms with the realities and requirements of life as a professional footballer.

“There’s a lot of things I would have changed coming through my first couple of years, done stuff different, on-field and off-field with dieting and whatnot,” Hill says.

“Your body, what you put into it, just doing recovery as well, which I was a bit shithouse at.

“I didn’t know about skinfolds, and I was pretty high on that, and you would not get me in the icebath, but I’m in there every now and then.”

If he had his time again he would also have upped the ante earlier with Giants coaches, giving them more reasons to pick him in the seniors, where he played just 13 games across his first two seasons.

That’s not to say he was a complete failure at GWS. Far from it. The Giants liked what he offered inside 50. It’s why they held him to his contract at the end of 2021, a time when he and partner Georgia were expecting their first child and wanted to move to Victoria to be closer to a support network including Bobby’s cousin Bradley, the St Kilda wingman.

“I think I just needed a new start. Didn’t end up getting it. I had to go back to the footy club, which was a bit awkward. But the boys were pretty good,” Hill says of that bid to join the Bombers who, along with the Pies, had been interested in Hill’s services when it emerged that he wanted to head south.

Hill played the first 11 games of 2022 in the Giants’ AFL side, a stint which included the end of Leon Cameron’s time at the helm. But the struggles of GWS were swiftly put into perspective when Hill received the message that he would need surgery to deal with the malignancy in his testicle. Remarkably, Hill played what would prove to be his final AFL match for the Giants already knowing he would need an operation.

“It was a bit daunting, scary at the same time. Me being at that young age. I was thinking, ‘Why me?’” Hill says. “(At first) I didn’t think anything of it. It’s just more like how a bloke would feel if you get hit down that way. I didn’t think it was feeling right so I got it checked and it was testicular cancer.

“(So my message is) ‘get it checked.; It’s not embarrassing. I was very embarrassed. But it’s actually not. It’s your health and safety. So go get it checked.

“You could have it for a couple of months, or you could have it for a very long time where it’s too late. I wouldn’t take life for granted (now). (But) I just forget about it now. I know I’ve been through it, and it’s something I don’t want to look back on.”

Georgia, needing to care for her recovering partner as well as son Bobby jnr, born early in 2022, was immense.

“She was there for me. She was a big part of it,” Bobby snr says. “And my family back home as well were a big part of the support.”

Carlton’s Sam Docherty and North Melbourne’s Ben Cunnington, both of whom had endured similar health issues, reached out, which Hill appreciated.

Hill returned to play in the VFL late in the year, but his desire to move to Victoria remained. However, while the Bombers had been his preferred destination 12 months earlier, the Pies had won over Hill’s heart through their extraordinary run of narrow wins under Craig McRae.

A relationship with development coach Neville Jetta played a role too, but ultimately Hill just loved what he saw from the Pies.

“Just watching them last year and the way they played, everyone just looked happy on the footy field. I’ve never been in a forward line where we’re smiling even though we’re down by like three or four goals. My first game against Geelong we were down by three or four and we were joking, and I was like ‘are we allowed to be joking here?’” Hill says.

“I’ve never been happier, and playing at a big club like Collingwood, it’s unbelievable.

“The only thing is trying to get used to this weather, coming to training with pants on and you walk out with shorts on because it goes hot and then cold.”

He notes how he walks in and out of the club every day with a smile, enjoying the mentorship of Jamie Elliott and the playful banter of Jordan de Goey, who insists on calling Bobby by his given name, Ian.

“I want to get called Ian maybe when I’m 60. It sounds like an old man’s name. I’ll just keep sticking with Bobby,” Hill says.

He remains in touch with Daniel Lloyd and Kieren Briggs at the Giants, catching up with them both during the recent Gather Round in Adelaide.

Even after trying to leave once, departing was still not easy the second time around.

“It was hard. I felt really guilty changing from a footy club to a new one,” Hill says.

“I’m thankful for the Giants for making my childhood dream come true, playing in the AFL, nothing but respect there, love them and am thankful for that.”

But he has embraced life in black and white, living in Bentleigh East with Georgia, Bobby jnr and teammate Cooper Murley. Defender Trey Ruscoe isn’t far away, while Bradley Hill is also close by.

“Cooper’s coming out of his shell a lot. The little one goes up to him a fair bit. It’s good that they get along real well,” Hill says. “We’re lucky that he sleeps the whole night. Probably gets that from me, he loves his sleep. He has two naps per day.

“He’s flying round at the moment. Loves his footy, which I’m happy with.”

Georgia is also working in childcare in nearby Chadstone, and Hill says he has something planned for Mother’s Day morning before the game.

On-field, Hill’s ball use has provided another dangerous edge to Collingwood’s forward play, helping the Magpies improve year on year. Last Sunday against Sydney, Hill was subbed out after a quiet few quarters, but he knows that it is the nature of the role.

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“It is a hard position to play. I don’t think many people understand what it’s like to play those types of games where you’re a low possession player,” Hill says.

“But I play as a low possession player. I don’t need a lot of the ball. I’d like a lot of the ball but my mentality is team first. I don’t need to go out and get 30, I’ll leave that to Daics and his brother.

“I’d love to get up (the ground), but we’ve got a lot of great players here, and I’m happy being in the forward line doing my job. I’m not quite there just yet where I know I can take my game.”