Bobby Hill had only kicked three goals in a game once before arriving at Collingwood. He’s now done that five times.
He’d never won more than seven games in a season either. He’s now up to 19 in 2023.
And he’d only played two finals in his four-year career – one of those against the Pies.
But now, in year five, he’s winning finals for the black and white.
Bursting out of the blocks with the opening two goals of the game, Hill put Melbourne on notice on Thursday night as the two sides opened the 2023 finals series.
His defensive pressure was up all game too, and he topped it off with an important goal in the third term to send the Magpie Army into raptures.
“It was amazing, a good turn out by the Magpie Army and you can’t get better than that,” Hill said in the rooms post-match.
“Full credit to the boys as well to keep pushing and playing our brand of footy and getting the W.
“Best crowd in the AFL and wouldn’t put it any other way to put this jumper on and with a great bunch of boys as well, it’s perfect.”
It’s easy to forget that Hill is just 23 years of age.
After being drafted with pick 24 in the 2018 draft, the livewire forward battled illness and being a part of a strong GWS team before moving south at the end of last season.
And he immediately proved his worth – kicking three goals in the opening round of the year against Geelong and now sitting with a career-best 28 and counting for the season – the third most of any Collingwood player.
After overcoming a hamstring complaint in the latter parts of the year, Hill is now in a Preliminary Final, and he and his teammates will use the week off to freshen up once again.
He has Prelim experience to lean on too, although it’s not a good memory for Pies fans – he was a member of the Giants team that triumphed by four points back in 2019.
But after having settled into life at Collingwood, Hill is confident the result will be different for the Pies this time around, and he’ll make it two from two in Prelims.
“The chemistry we have here with the boys, you back it in,” he said.
“That’s (Preliminary Finals) what we play for and everyone will obviously rest up and get the body right and get back into training and start up like that again and keep going all the way.”
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