BEHIND the freakish goal, the quirky celebration the following week, an emerging personality on Twitter and well-spoken media performer is a fierce inner drive within Collingwood midfielder Tom Phillips.

And it is powering Phillips to lofty heights, with the third-year Magpie's numbers putting him in the All Australian conversation and seeing him challenge West Coast's Andrew Gaff as one of the competition's leading wingmen.

Phillips' rationale behind his form – he has averaged 27 disposals in the opening 10 rounds and booted eight goals – is simple.

"It's about being more comfortable with the roles I'm playing. I'm flourishing under the guys I'm playing alongside and I put it down to the faith and trust from the coaches," he told AFL.com.au this week.



There is a little more depth behind it than that, though. Phillips, 22, has always been an excellent endurance athlete, a trait shared by his brother, St Kilda's Ed.

In his first two seasons at Collingwood, Phillips' ability to run out games allowed him to be a ball accumulator.

But he spent last pre-season keen to sharpen his ball use and add more goals to his game, a trait that flowed through his time at the Oakleigh Chargers as a junior. It has worked – after 10 rounds last year he had booted 1.6.

This year he has kicked a goal in seven of 10 games, and it's not unusual to see Phillips be one of the last to leave the track at the Holden Centre after working with assistant coach Brad Gotch with extra running shots at goal.

"The type of player I am with my running and work rate, adding more speed and carrying the footy, breaking the lines and actually being really damaging offensively were my aims," Phillips said.

"I want to keep my defensive mindset but set myself apart from the rest as a midfielder with that offensive flair, trying to set up the play, set up the guys to kick goals and try to get on the end of some myself."

He kicked two goals against Geelong in round eight, but was concussed in the process of the second, when he was tackled into the MCG turf.

Phillips, who is studying media and communications at university and co-hosts his own podcast called The Boardroom, joked on Twitter after the game he was in rare company to kick a goal before having a "nap" on the 'G.

The following week, when he slipped forward and kicked another goal against St Kilda, he alluded to the incident by pretending to be asleep in his celebration.

Explaining it, Phillips said: "I do things if they're timely and warranted, but otherwise I'm a pretty low-key operator. I'll pop up and do something interesting here or there."

His form is attracting attention, though, and his figures stack up well against Gaff, who is one of the hottest restricted free agents in the competition.

Gaff, 26 this month, is averaging 30.1 disposals, but little separates the pair in most key categories. In Champion Data's rankings, Phillips is rated elite for handballs, uncontested possessions and goals, and above average in disposals, kicks, metres gained, clearances and score involvements.

He averages more metres gained than Gaff (413 a game to Gaff's 394).

In many ways the modern game, and its required natural aerobic capacity, has come to Phillips. But his development is also a win for the Pies' recruiting team, as he was overlooked in the 2014 NAB AFL Draft and then taken at pick No. 58 the following year after improving as a 19-year-old in the TAC Cup system.

For Phillips missing out on a draft had a lasting impact.

"It taught me you don't get things given to you on a silver platter and sometimes potentially with the guys who come in a little bit earlier they get pinned up to be the No. 1 guys," he said. "That was never me. That's worked in my favour. I've been able to come into my football with a really clean mindset."

He also came into Collingwood with Scott Pendlebury, Adam Treloar, Steele Sidebottom and Taylor Adams around him in the midfield, while Dane Swan was at the club in his first season. Phillips watched how they trained and prepared, and added his own twist.

"I'm a different personality and different character and that's the same for each of us, you can't try and mimic exactly what they're doing. But from an actions' point of view and what they're doing to get the performance, I've taken a lot from that and the way they've gone about it as senior players," he said.

Phillips' challenge, like that of his side, is to keep it going. The Pies are 6-4 and have surprised many with their impressive start to the season. They face Fremantle at the MCG on Sunday and Melbourne in next week's Queen's Birthday clash before a bye in round 13.

"My case is similar to the team's, I reckon; we're tracking well but we need to keep the head down and just look at the next 10-15 weeks and know we've got work to do," he said. "It's imperative for us to keep pushing."

Comparing the wingmen: Tom Phillips v Andrew Gaff

PHILLIPS GAFF Games 10 10 Disposals 27.1 30.1 Kicks 14.4 17.2 Handballs 12.7 12.9 Kicking efficiency 63.9% 70.9% Metres gained 413 394 Inside 50s 2.5 3.5 Contested possessions 30.6% 30.3% Clearances 2.2 4 Ground-ball gets 6.5 6.1 Goals 0.8 0.6 Score involvements 5.7 7.4 Pressure points 30.8 37.8

Statistics supplied by Champion Data