Earlier this season, in the lead up to the round 8 Carlton Mid Derby, Freo coach Mark Harvey gave up some super-secret inside information on how his young superstar Stephen Hill had been preparing for the game.

He was sleeping with a photo of West Coast’s Scott Selwood to get used to the tagging tactics the Eagle would employ against him, Harvs told us.

If Hilly has gone to sleep with pictures of every player who he expects to get tagged by, then the 21-year-old has shared his bed with at least, say, 11 snaps of his opponents mugs.

All the footy purists wish Hill could just be allowed to do what he does best - run and stun his way onto the highlight reel.

But the truth is that every club he lines up against is wary of what he will do if they don’t give him more attention than Justin Bieber gets at an under 18s nightclub.

Now you ask, what does this all mean in a Dream Team sense? It means that Hill, who is not talked about much when it comes to fantasy football, could be a time-bomb ready to explode.

All he has to do is figure out how to consistently break the shackles put on him by his opponents, who are tighter than Dermott Brereton’s shorts were in the 80s.

If, or when according to some hopeful fans, young Hilly can find the ball with the ease of a Gary Ablett or Dane Swan, the Freo star could lift his DT average considerably.
He has the tools already.

Kicks more than he handballs: Check. Breakneck speed that allows him to get to contests, lay tackles and burst clear to take marks: Check. Likes to kick goals: Check.

Hill’s already shown in a few games this year that he can be a DT star, not just a highlight package producer’s best friend.

In round 2 he scored 90 points against Geelong and backed that up with 110 against Adelaide the following week.

Last round, against Hawthorn at the MCG, he kicked three big goals on his way to 99 DT points.

Hilly’s average this season is still only 70.4, but that has risen steadily from 66.7 last year and 58 in his debut season of 2009.

Many of today’s Dream Team guns had similar averages in their early years before eventually finding ways to become consistently high scorers.

For now, the Stephen Hill time-bomb ticks on.