As a young indigenous boy hailing from Northam, Western Australia, Bobby Hill, who plays like he has always had a footy in his hands, recalls being thrust into Aussies Rules by his old man at a young age. He would kick the footy around with his cousins (he is cousin to St Kilda’s Brad Hill), before eventually joining the early pathway system that is AusKick at where his now intense love for the game started to take hold.

“Yeah, my journey from there (AusKick), [is where my] love of the game [began],” he recalls. “[That] was from four or five. But probably when I fell in love with it a little bit more was when I made State 12s, where, you know, you get to [go over] to Geelong and watch a few AFL games over there, and then, you know, that’s [when you] look at them and go, ‘that’s what I want to do for a living’.”

“My strengths as a player, I think, are my speed — I like to get up the ground and burn the opposition back — and you know I know where the goals are, and I love kicking a goal,” he enthuses when we ask what his best traits are. “I also love passing it off to my teammates and don’t mind taking a hanger. [Also my] marking and tackling pressure.”

Having started his career as a GWS Giant, Hill eventually found his way to one of the country’s most popular (and oft derided) clubs in Collingwood and hasn’t looked back. He routinely plays in front of some of the largest home and away crowds and in last year’s almost unlikely Grand Final appearance (given how close the majority of the Pies’ games were throughout the season), Hill not only got the so-called “chocolates” with the biggest W of his young career, but also claimed the Norm Smith medal in a tight finish against the Brisbane Lions’ Keidean Coleman.

“It’s obviously a childhood dream,” Hill says with a smile. “Playing in front of 90,000 to 100,000 every week I think [is what] most kids want — to play in front of a lot [of fans]. And I think that’s what drives me to be the player I am. It’s unbelievable.

“I think last season, obviously coming in… it was brand new, [I was a] brand new face [but then] being crowned, you know, a Premiership player [in my first year], was obviously a dream come true as well obviously winning the Norm Smith. That topped it off as an individual award but yeah, my main focus was to obviously win the Premiership.

High performance at AFL level is considered elite, world wide. After all, our players can run anywhere between five and 18 km a game depending on the position they play, and their respective game-time. So diet, training and a disciplined approach to life mean you sacrifice some freedoms we all otherwise take for granted, to play at the top level, and some players find this a difficult grind to accept or follow through in absolution, but Hill loves this aspect of his profession. The carb-loading the night before a game, the specific dietary requirements — all of it. And like most elite athletes, he also has his superstitions during preparation.

“I have to wear the same budgies every week,” he says with a cheeky smile. “Obviously washed! But yeah, I have to do that, and then I have to put my right sock on first and then my left boot. [Before a game] I like to have pasta, so spaghetti bolognese and [I eat] the exact same brekkie every morning.”

“I do it all the time,” he says when we ask how often he gets up to locker room shenanigans. “I don’t do it to Jordy De Goey because he takes it too far, [but I] do it to Jamie Elliott.

“I got, like, these … meat sticks. And I take them out of the pack and I just leave them in his locker,” he continues with an even bigger smile. “[And] I’ve been doing that for, like, the last three weeks! He looked at me and he [just] started swearing and I started laughing and he said ‘it was you!’.”

The joy of the game beams through Hill, and not just on the field, but clearly off it, and it’s something he attributes to coach Craig “Fly” McRae who openly talks about letting his players express themselves.

Earlier this year Bobby and his partner, Georgia, welcomed baby boy, Malakai, to the family, joining their two-year-old son, Bobby Jnr.

“My biggest momentum drive is obviously waking up every morning to, you know, be the player I am today for my family,” he says of how his family motivates him, day to day. “My two boys — seeing the smile on the face of my little one (Bobby Jnr) after the game and being a role model for him… [it gives me] that drive every week — I go out and play the game I love in front of a lot of people and … to make a name for myself and, you know, [make] a pathway for my boys and my family as well.

“That’s my biggest drive — to do it for them.”

The sky’s the limit for Hill, who is still just 24 years of age. In AFL metrics, that means he’s not even reached the peak of his powers, and at one of the largest and most well-equipped sporting organisations in the country, it’s scary to think what his next level could look like. But for Hill, his eyes are firmly on the here and now. Though he does have some things he’d love to accomplish off the field.

“One thing I wish I was good at outside AFL would be swimming,” he admits candidly. “[And] one thing I hate about training is the [Melbourne] weather — it’s very cold early in the morning.”

Not something a young lad from Northam can maybe ever get used to, but on game-day, it doesn’t show. But Hill admits his favourite time to play is in the sunny, warmer weather. As for life-goals beyond another premiership and, who knows, another Norm Smith (and probably Mark of the Year this year), would be to meet another sporting hero.