Collingwood coach Craig McRae says he finds it a "delicate balance" between caring for Bobby Hill and placing attention on high performance.
Hill has taken extended leave after a troublesome personal period, which resulted in half a match in the final 10 weeks of the season.
McRae has said that the Pies are preparing for life without the 2023 Norm Smith Medallist in the early stages of the upcoming season, but is holding out hope for later in the year.
"Bobby is working on himself at the moment. We're hoping that he'll be in the program in the short or medium term. We'll see how that progresses," McRae told SEN Breakfast.
"But I think there are two parts to this situation… I want to be a coach, and we want to be an environment where we just love and care for our people, all our people, from players to staff, and then there's the high-performance part.
"We're paid to win. You come to the MCG not to love and care. You want to see winners.
"For most of the year, for Bobby, it was about love and support, and there was very little attention to high performance because we just wanted to care for him.
"Then there comes a time late in the year when they become about high performance. That's where it's sitting at the moment.
"It's always a delicate balance of those two magnets. They somewhat collide at times.
"But we'll continue to love and support him, and at the right time, get him in the environment to push forward for high performance."
McRae says he's been speaking to Hill regularly, and has confidence that there's progression towards a return.
Hill signed a four-year extension in April last year.
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