I think Hill is far more valuable to us than others. He is limited as a player, but we tend to hide his weaknesses and exploit his strengths because we have a strong team around him. Other teams are unlikely to be able to utilise him as well as we do. Not to mention, a lot of our inside players are slowish, and limited on the outside, meaning he complements them in a way that makes the whole team better.
At a time when Hill will become more and more valuable (as interchanges decrease), i see no reason to trade him, especially not for a risky proposition like Bennell.
I agree with much of what you say, I guess the 'reason' I see for trading him comes from concern about our engine room going forward - who is going to extract it, who is going to explode away from inside the congestion ala Fyfe, who is going to feed it to our outside runners.
I don't think Shiels is that player, I hope but am not sure about Langers, and Howe may be the only other player on the list with that potential under 30.
Jed for mine just doesn't have the jets.
I like our outside runners even minus Hill, in fact I think were stocked with youngish good ones, and can draft another, but guys like Bennell take an inside 5 draft pick.
I'd take the risk with his outside curriculars, especially as Hawthorn has plenty of experience with it's own over the last 35 years handling such problems. Add to that the older and indigenous heads around to continually point him in a useful direction, and I like the risk.
Hilly for me is treading water as a footballer. Rounds 13 - 20 he couldn't get near it, and when he did get it on the outside his lack of confidence led him to look decidedly ordinary with the football. He didn't exactly tear up the first half of the year either.
He's been ok since round 20, but I think with another pre-season and more games, Hartung will give every bit as much, in fact I think in a GF with Hartung instead of Hill, we are zero worse off.....again, given another 6 months for Billy to develop.
Of course I'm happy for Hill to stay, he can play, but I'd do plenty to get Harley in.