Collingwood star Adam Treloar knows he might not see as much midfield time as recent years but he’s all for it as the Pies try to go a step further in 2019.

Since crossing from GWS at the end of 2015, the hard-running onballer has been a star for Nathan Buckley’s team — playing 60 matches including last year’s heartbreaking grand final loss.

The 25-year-old is yet to watch a replay of that match and has no plan to, saying the memory is “way too painful”.

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Instead of looking back Treloar is intent on improving, and says he and his teammates are working on becoming a more-flexible outfit this year.

“I think last year, the best thing about us, and leading into this pre-season is we had players who play multiple positions,” Treloar told SEN.

media_camera Adam Treloar and Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley after the Grand Final. Pic: Phil Hillyard

“I think the prime example was a guy named Jordan De Goey, who’s predominantly a midfielder but who we put forward and (he) absolutely dominated. Now he likes to play forward and mid.

“I think you’ll see a lot of players who you expect to be in the midfield ... guys like myself, Brayden Sier, Beamsy (Dayne Beams), Tay (Taylor Adams), Pendles to hone skills in other areas.

“Whether that’s playing forward, playing outside, playing down back ... we don’t want to be a one-dimensional midfield and a one-dimensional team.”

Relinquishing midfield minutes is likely to be part of the plan for Treloar and his host of star teammates.

media_camera Dayne Beams has joined Collingwood’s star-studded midfield Pic: Wayne Ludbey

Champion Data rates Collingwood’s onball brigade the fourth-strongest of all AFL clubs in 2019 (behind Melbourne, Geelong and Adelaide), and with names like Steele Sidebottom, Daniel Wells and Tom Phillips queuing up behind Treloar and co. it’s not hard to see why.

Treloar said while Brodie Grundy was a lock to play in the ruck, choosing three teammates to also start in the centre square would pose a nice problem for coaching staff.

“I think we’ll have Tay (Taylor Adams) in there (in the starting midfield). He’s an absolute star, a big bull and probably one of the best contested ball players in the game,” he said.

“We’ll have Pendles, obviously being a champion of the game for the last 10 years ... and I’d say we’d have someone like Beamsy.

“There’s plenty of room for me to come off the bench or sit in the forward line and then come and have my burst in the midfield.”

Treloar might have been modest when discussing the likely starting midfield quartet, but with centre square positions at a premium he hinted that, at times, he might play a similar role to De Goey.

“What we preached when we came back last year and this year is we really need to embrace our secondary role,” he said.

“So for me, my secondary role is going to be playing as a high half-forward or a deep forward, the way that Jordy sort of played last year.”