He’s played in 69 matches, 10 finals and a premiership, but Tyson Goldsack feels as if Collingwood is yet to see his best football.

After a bright start, which saw him play 33 of a possible 41 matches since his debut in round eight, 2007, Goldsack has been beset by injury and the occasional form lapse that has resulted in a frustrating three years in which he has never been able to find traction.

Fortunately, 2012 is shaping up to be a lot more fruitful for the 24-year-old.

“It’s been good. It’s my first full pre-season. I’m injury free, which is promising. I’m playing a lot on the wing and up forward so I’m looking forward to it,” Goldsack told collingwoodfc.com.au during the club’s Community Camp in Wangaratta.

“I guess it’s all new to me, to actually play in the NAB Cup. I haven’t played much of the NAB before. To be able to run games out and have that fitness and not be stuffed after a full game is a good feeling.

“Later on in the season I’ll probably feel it a bit more when I’ve got the run and the kilometres in the legs and I’ll be able to run out games a lot more.”

Luck hasn’t been kind to Goldsack in recent years.

He could only string more than two games in succession only twice in 2009, and was sidelined by illness during the 2010 pre-season that meant he was forced to wait until round 13 to reappear in the senior side.

The following year wasn’t any easier with Glandular Fever stripping him of nine kilograms and denying him of all the momentum he’d built late in the year when he became a premiership player and represented Australia in the International Rules.

The inconsistent preparation has left Goldsack struggling to run out games, a factor he believes led to his omission from the Collingwood line-up during last year’s finals despite a strong performance against West Coast’s Andrew Embley in the Qualifying Final.

“I was happy enough. I did the job I had to do against Embley, but still running out the game was tough,” he conceded.

“I got to half time and I was pretty cooked. It’s probably what burnt me in the end - the inability to run out a game. I was happy with the role I had to play, and I probably played it in the first half, but didn’t have the tank to finish it off.”

Goldsack is the first to admit that life isn’t easy on the edge of the team. He’s twice worn the full impact of the match committee’s sledgehammer during September.

Prior to being dropped ahead of the Preliminary Final last year, he was a gut-wrenching omission from the 2010 Grand Final team, only to return for the replay when the draw (and Leon Davis’ form lapse) gave him a reprieve.

He has vowed to never let it happen again.

“The disappointment of getting dropped is all too familiar at finals time,” Goldsack rued.

“It’s something that I don’t want to feel again. I felt it for the last two years so if I can stay away from that, it will probably be the main change hopefully.”

The first step to remedying that is a full pre-season - something he hasn’t experienced in several years.

“It just means that you’re behind the eight-ball to start with because you’re not playing the lead up games to the season. It means you’re more prone to injury and just trying to find the spot in the team.

“You’re battling against guys who’ve done a full pre-season which leaves you behind the eight-ball so hopefully I can start from scratch with them and go from there.”

It’s not only his fitness that felt the impact of watching the early rounds from the grandstands. The form displayed by most on Collingwood’s list in the past three years has raised the bar for the rest of the league and has left Goldsack battling to break in.

“The team gets set to a certain degree. You’ve either got to wait for injuries or for blokes to fall out of form, or you have to be in top form to get a game. I guess the stats show that I didn’t have full games after coming back into the team.

“I didn’t have a full season to finish off so it’s pretty hard to hold down a spot without having that fitness base behind you, especially because there are guys behind you pushing up who do have that fitness base so this will hold me in good stead. I’ll try to get in the team early and stay there for the rest of the year.”

Should things progress as planned, Goldsack hopes to spend more time further afield as he did in the first round of the NAB Cup against the Western Bulldogs and Greater Western Sydney.

In his mind, a position on centre wing in round one against Hawthorn would be ideal.

“I probably (want to play on) the wing. I played on the wing on the weekend and I really enjoyed it,” Goldsack grinned.

“Having that freedom to run up and down it’s going to take a few games to get used to. I’ll hopefully play on the wing and half back and if I have to go forward a little bit, then the ability to do that with a larger tank from the pre-season should be good.

Unfortunately for traditionalists, a move to the wing will probably end his days of roosting torpedos from the kick outs.

“If I’m playing that wing role, which is ideally where I want to be, I won’t be as far down back. We’ve got good kickers in ‘Johnno’ (Ben Johnson), ‘Heater’ (Heath Shaw) and now ‘Yags’ (Peter Yagmoor) stepping up to the plate.

“I’ll just be up on the wing and receiving it from them, lace out!”