In a career-best season, Hille quickly cemented himself as one of the more dominant and consistent big-men in the competition before a hand injury prematurely ended his year.
His consistency was evident in the voting, polling in 14 of his 20 games. His best performances of the year came in Round 12 against West Coast and Round 13 against Carlton in which he polled 26 votes (out of a possible 30) in each game.
Hille finished the count on 256 votes, 40 votes ahead of second-placed Matthew Lloyd (216) and 68 votes ahead of third placed Brent Stanton (188).
Lloyd also finished second in the award in 2001.
Hille was taken with selection 40 in the 1999 national AFL draft. Since making his debut in 2001, the 201cm ruckman has played 144 games and kicked 106 goals.
The final voting for the 2008 Crichton medal was:
David Hille - 256
Matthew Lloyd - 216
Brent Stanton - 188
Jobe Watson - 178
Mark McVeigh - 144
Angus Monfries - 140
Patrick Ryder - 138
Andrew Welsh - 134
Dustin Fletcher - 133
Henry Slattery - 133
Sam Lonergan - 121
Nathan Lovett-Murray - 117
Kyle Reimers - 104
Andrew Lovett - 98
Adam McPhee - 96
Damien Peverill - 67
Bachar Houli - 60
Jason Winderlich - 41
Jay Nash - 39
Ricky Dyson - 38
Adam Ramanauskas - 36
Alwyn Davey - 34
Jason Johnson - 31
David Myers - 31
Courtenay Dempsey - 29
Mal Michael - 24
Leroy Jetta - 22
Tom Hislop - 19
Scott Lucas - 18
Tom Bellchambers - 13
Heath Hocking - 11
Rhys Magin - 4
Jay Neagle - 3
