Four years of hard work has finally paid off for Corey Gault who has been upgraded from Collingwood’s rookie list.

Gault’s promotion comes after the tall forward led the Magpies’ forward line throughout the NAB Challenge.

The 23-year-old kicked eight goals in Collingwood’s three practice matches, ranking third in the competition to only teammate Alex Fasolo (nine goals) and North Melbourne’s Drew Petrie (10).

After being described as a “no-brainer” to be upgraded by Neil Balme on Monday, Gault was presented to the Collingwood faithful at the club’s season launch on Tuesday as a senior listed player.

After a career pock marked by injuries, Gault on Wednesday told Collingwood Media that it is a “relief” to be finally upgraded.

“There’s been a lot of hard work done over the pre-season without knowing what to expect,” he said.

“It was good to get the reward for the hard work.”

2016 hasn’t been all smooth sailing for the 200cm man from Perth. He began the pre-season recovering from off-season surgery.

He began full training with short-term goals and lowered expectations.

“I had a bit of a disjointed pre-season. I wasn’t really expecting much,” he said.

“I was just trying to concentrate on the processes and things like that from week to week and see how that went.

While his flights to Sydney for Collingwood’s round one clash remain unbooked, Gault has done his chances of playing regular senior football no problems.

A new-look forward consisting of a three-pronged tall attack of Gault, Darcy Moore and Travis Cloke was just one point away from being the highest scoring team in the NAB Challenge.

One tall who Gault’s good news isn’t so pleasant for is American Mason Cox.

Cox impressed in Collingwood’s first two NAB Challenge games, but he will have to wait for another chance to join the senior list.

After years of waiting patiently for his turn to be upgraded, Gault has words of advice for Cox and the other members of the Magpies’ rookie list.

“As bad as this might sounds, there’s probably going to be injuries. And obviously there’s Shaz (Matt Scharenberg) so there’s opportunities there.

“So they just need to keep working hard and make sure that their form is good enough in the VFL that once they get promoted they’re straight into the team.”

It’s a challenge Gault no longer has to deal with.