HIS FAMOUS locks are gone and so too is the bitter pain of last year's Grand Final defeat.

Collingwood's dynamic midfielder Dale Thomas has revealed the Magpies did a "little bit of soul searching" during their six weeks off following the 38-point loss to Geelong in last year's decider, but the players were no longer wallowing in that memory.

A new-look Thomas (he had his hair shaved at the end of last year) said on Friday: "You kind of worry where you've gone wrong and where you need to get better to go that one step further.

"I'm sure I wasn't alone in those thoughts over the break.

"[But the Grand Final loss has] not [been discussed] a great deal. Obviously it's a new year, new coach - a lot of different things.

"Obviously, for the boys who played and were around, it probably sits somewhere in their mind.

"And when the going does get tough, it probably provides a little bit of a spark.

"But you do move on. I think the motivation would have served its purpose to get the boys going at the start of pre-season.

"For us now, it's about continuing what we've done, the hard work we've done, and staying as fit and healthy as we can throughout the season."

Thomas said the players had returned from their Christmas break in great shape and were looking forward to playing again.

"Hopefully, we can go one step further but there's a long way to go," he said.

Thomas said new coach Nathan Buckley had already made an impact on the group as attempts to tweak the line up.

"So far, he's just all about the process and trying to refine a couple of things that he has seen from the outside in," Thomas said.

"Obviously, he's brought a few new ideas and a few little different things he's going to tweak, and it's been responded to really well by the group.

"It's been a really smooth transition."