Not a siren will be blown nor a ball bounced the week after the home and away season concludes in a fortnight’s time.

Yet it could be the most important weekend of Adam Treloar’s year.

A recent addition to the AFL fixture, the pre-finals bye has been in place for the last two seasons. For those confined to rehab like the Collingwood midfielder, it offers the silver lining of potentially playing again.

“I love it,” Treloar told Collingwood Media podcast ‘Sports Galore’.

“Especially for someone like me who is coming back now through injury. If we didn’t have that week, that’s another weeks chance that I might not get back.”

iPhone users: Subscribe here for weekly notifications of new Sports Galore episodes.

Treloar’s bid to return from hamstring concerns have remained a popular talking point since he first suffered the injuries in round 14 against Carlton.

He remains on the cusp of returning in time for finals, with coach Nathan Buckley recently saying “every win we get we give him more time”.

With two rounds remaining in the season, Treloar believes the benefit of the pre-finals bye will extend beyond just his rehab efforts.  
“I think everyone needs to freshen up,” he said.

“Right now, we’re in a position where there’s a chance we’re going to play finals footy.

“Everyone is looking forward to finishing the season strong, playing well in the last two games and then having a break.

“Especially for a team that hasn’t played finals footy since 2013, it’s going to be a great opportunity to freshen up and bring our best. As everyone says, it’s a whole other season come finals time.”

Sports Galore S2EP11: Returning to training, unlucky injuries & a pre-finals freshen up  
Sports Galore’s Adam Treloar and Mark Allen discuss a return to training (0:30), analysing Port Adelaide (3:00), benefits of the pre-finals bye (4:20), thoughts for Alex Johnson (6:15), the unlucky pick ahead of Kevin Durant (9:00), a goose attacks (12:10), being hit where you don’t want to be hit (13:30), Melbourne Victory’s captain-coach (15:00), pronouncing V.V.S Laxman (16:00) and more.