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Jamie Elliott is still dirty with Bobby Hill. Well, you would be too if he’d cost you $50,000.
On Anzac Day last year Elliott floated onto Ben McKay’s shoulders and wrapped his knees around McKay’s head to claim the sort of mark that would draw an appreciative nod from resident speccy-merchant Jeremy Howe. The consensus view was that the $50,000 and enough free flyer points to fly around the world first-class for winning mark of the year were as good as in his hand.
Collingwood teammates Bobby Hill and Jamie Elliott have a tight bond.Credit: via Getty Images
Then came Bobby. Less than two months later against North Melbourne, Hill borrowed Billy Frampton’s shoulders to almost stand on the pack to mark. He dropped to both feet, ball in hands, and looked around like a bloke wondering if anyone had seen his keys.
The cheque slipped from Elliott’s fingers.
“I am still off him for last year; he cost me 50 grand,” Elliott said.
Bobby Hill is 175 centimetres tall. Elliott 177cm. Size means nothing when you can jump like they do.
“We do have a lot of banter. We joke about goals and trying to get each other into the game and about marks and who is going to take mark of the year, and going into a game, who we are going to jump on.
“Which is just a part of having a relaxed feeling and a bit of fun. It’s a bit of healthy competition, but I still have to get one up on him for [that] mark of the year. Goal of the year he might have me covered, but mark of the year I might be able to beat him.”
If you want to know what Elliott is like, this hints at it – he agreed to do this interview, but only on the proviso he could talk about Bobby Hill. He loves Bobby.
The pair share a similarity of style as small, high-leaping goalkickers. Like an opposition Elliott has to remind himself to look around for Bobby.
“There was a mark it might have been in 2023 or start of 2024 and I tried to hump on a GWS player on a wing and I kind of spoilt Bobby. We joke about it a lot I was like ‘mate I didn’t even see you, where did you come from?’.
“Sometimes you are not really aware of where he is because he is so dynamic and quick, so I didn’t know he was there and suddenly he is on the shoulders and I am jumping into him.
“If I see him in the vicinity and I think he has a good run at it, I am definitely standing back. I will watch him. I get front row seats each week to the Bobby show.” They are good seats.
Jamie Elliott’s favourite bit of play this year was a free kick. And not one to Collingwood.
Jamie Elliott (left) and Bobby Hill of the Magpies celebrate a goal.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
It wasn’t any free kick. It was Hill’s rundown tackle of Geelong’s Shaun Mannagh in the closing minutes of a thrilling round eight match at the MCG. Although the umpires judged it a trip, and Collingwood lost by three points, within the Magpie inner-sanctum it’s regarded as the best bit of play of the year, and something to be celebrated.
“We still celebrate that tackle. He got up to 35.5 or 36km/h (on the GPS trackers they wear) and I was in awe. I am not that quick any more. How quick he looked on the field when he did that was amazing,” Elliott said.
“He didn’t get the free, but that tackle lifted the whole team. You could feel it out there. Rundown chases like that are just as inspiring a moment or act for the team as kicking a goal from the boundary.”
For context, Noah Lyles’ top speed when he won gold in the 100m at the Paris Olympics – not after playing near-full a game of football, running on grass and wearing footy boots – was 43.6km/h.
Bobby Hill’s chase-down tackle on Shaun Mannagh.Credit: Fox Footy
Two games earlier, when Collingwood upset Brisbane at the Gabba, the key moment of Magpie joy was Hill’s late rundown tackle of Dayne Zorko. Coach Craig McRae ensured it was also celebrated.
It is a point of difference between Hill and Elliott – Hill is a tackler.
“Beau (McCreery) is the one who is always into me, [saying] ‘can’t you lay a tackle and just share some goals with me?’,” Elliott laughed.
While the team enjoys celebrating Hill’s tackles and goals, no one can celebrate moments in the same style as the puckish man himself.
Boby Hill take a bow. The Collingwood small forward celebrates after a goal.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
“I think Bobby has a different celebration with everyone. We have got the little tiny handshake. But I am not a big celebrator. I would like to get into it, but in the moment it’s so hard to remember to do it. Mine are real basic, but when you are kicking goals like him he can do whatever he wants,” Elliott said.
“He brings so much enjoyment to the team and the energy he brings is so infectious. When you have guys like that, it just boosts you. Do you know what I mean? He is one where he does something freakish and you go ‘what just happened?’.”
Where football can be largely orthodox and the next pattern of play can become easy to forecast, Hill’s unpredictability can be unnerving. His goals, his mark, in the 2023 grand final, when he won the Norm Smith Medal, illustrated it best. It was like trying to tackle an idea.
“When you are on you are on and no one can stop you, especially him,” Elliott said. “He was baulking everyone … what a day to play the best footy of your life.”
Norm Smith medallist Bobby Hill celebrating the Magpies 2023 premiership.Credit: Getty Images
In that flush of play, Hill was magnetic. The apprehension among his opponents was palpable and the anticipation in the crowd electric. Elliott said once his teammates became aware that Hill was on, they didn’t have to worry about trying to feed him opportunities; they knew they would simply come his way and the best thing they could do was give him space.
“I don’t remember him talking too much out there about how he was going, he was just doing it. It was just instinct; everything was just flowing for him,” Elliott said.
“For a small forward to have that much impact on a granny is just phenomenal, I was in awe of watching him that day.”
As Hill prepares for the 100th game on Monday, Elliott remains more broadly in awe of his career.
Bobby Hill started his AFL career at GWS.Credit: Gertty Images
Hill started as a Giant and played 41 games for that club before testicular cancer ended not only his 2022 season, but raised doubts about if or when he might return to the sport.
He had tried to get to the Bombers at the end of 2021, but he had a year to go on his contract and the Giants were unwilling to release him unless they could secure Luke Breust from Hawthorn.
Essendon bided their time, hoping to get him 12 months later. That was Hill’s plan, too, until Neville Jetta got in his ear. Jetta was at Collingwood and persuaded Hill it would also be a good fit for him.
It wasn’t a straightforward sell. Collingwood had a damaged reputation for historical systemic racism, and was compiling it Do Better report. But Jetta was there, and Leon Davis was back at the club, so Hill became a Magpie for what is now a piffling amount; a future second round pick and a minor pick shuffle.
“When he came in we didn’t go out of our way to do anything over the top to welcome him as an Indigenous player,” Elliott recalled.
“We want everyone to come in and feel comfortable just to be themselves, no matter who they are because, honestly, you are not going to get the best out of a person otherwise.
“It’s more than footy, you just want people to love coming to work, love coming into the environment and enjoy being at work.
“He has grown as a person so much, not just as a player. He speaks up in meetings, he is more of a leader, especially in the forward line. He sees the game so well.”
Bobby Hill and his son Bobby in 2024,Credit: Getty
But, as Elliott knows that doesn’t mean the game comes to you.
“There was a game early in the year [where] he didn’t get a touch for the first half, and I remember speaking to him at half-time – because I have found myself [how difficult it can be] in that position so many times as a small forward – [and] I just reminded him things turn really quickly.
“He came out and kicked a goal from the boundary straight after half-time. I got to him and was like ‘this is what happens. Just ride it and it will come’.”
There are few better at riding it than Bobby Hill.
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