Collingwood has formally parted ways with Bobby Hill, cutting short a contract that ran through to the end of 2030, after the 26-year-old revealed he needs a break from the game to work on himself and rediscover his love for it.

Football manager Charlie Gardiner confirmed the split in a club statement on the morning of July 31, 2026. He said Collingwood had spent the past 12 months working with Hill to build support structures around personal matters, but that Hill had struggled to meet his commitments consistently during the 2026 season. ABC News

"I'm going to take a break from football to keep working on myself and regain my passion for the game," Hill said in the statement released by the club.

The announcement came hours after Collingwood's Round 21 loss to Geelong at the MCG on Thursday night, a match played under a heavy cloud. Before the first bounce, Hill had shared on Instagram a racist direct message sent to him by a Collingwood supporter. ABC News

Coach Craig McRae fronted the media post-match and threw his support behind Hill without hesitation. "Bobby, our thoughts are with you," McRae said. "We'll always love him." Asked about the racial abuse, McRae did not mince words, describing social media as "a cesspool for people just to vent." ABC News

Hill's departure ends a Collingwood career that peaked on the game's biggest stage. In the 2023 AFL Grand Final, he kicked four goals and won the Norm Smith Medal — the award for best player on the ground in the premiership decider. It was the kind of performance that makes a player's name permanent in the minds of supporters.

But 2026 told a different story. Hill had not played at AFL level for almost a year, managing just three appearances in the VFL — the second-tier competition where AFL-listed players build form or return from injury. The gap between the Grand Final hero and the player unable to hold a senior berth had been growing for months.

Gardiner's statement made clear the club had not arrived at this decision lightly, noting the sustained effort to support Hill through personal challenges over the past year. The contractual split, rather than a trade or a delisting, points to both parties accepting that a clean break served Hill's interests better than forcing the situation to continue.

For Collingwood, the football continues. The loss to Geelong leaves them navigating the back end of the 2026 season without one of their most electrifying talents on the list. For Hill, the priority is elsewhere — stepping away from the game that made his name, with no timeline attached to a possible return.