As Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley pointed out on Wednesday: "You admire what players have done from across the fence. And often it becomes a little bit larger when it's against the club you're part of." Or, indeed, when it's in a grand final.

Varcoe, still only 26, has played 138 games since being drafted by the Cats in 2005, but the clear standout remains his 2011 grand final performance.

It was the Cat speedster who set the ball rolling with the first two goals, who continued to find the football with 21 disposals, and whose incredible final-quarter goal effectively sealed victory, starting a possession chain deep in defence, running on to toe-poke the ball forward again on the wing, then continuing on to gather the spills of a marking contest and coolly bounce one through from 30 metres to give his side an unassailable 21-point lead.

"Collingwood fans would say he's hurt us. I'm sure they're looking forward to seeing the same action in black and white stripes," says the coach.

But only as much as the man himself. "You're always motivated when you're going into a pre-season, but this one's probably got a bit more of an edge to it for me," Varcoe says.

"I'm as excited as I've been since I started. Once you get in here, you really want to show the club what you can do, want to prove you're a hard worker. I want to win another grand final, and I think this group has the ability to do that with the list coming through."

And he's looking forward to playing a senior role at a club which, in age terms this year, was the sixth-youngest in the competition and which, after the departures of Heritier Lumumba and Dayne Beams and the retirements of veterans Nick Maxwell, Luke Ball, Ben Hudson and Quinten Lynch, will be even younger again in 2015.

"At Geelong, we had quite a lot in that older age bracket, so that leadership was shared a bit more across a larger group, whereas here I'm probably going to need to invest a bit more time into that," he says. "I'm going to love doing that. I think it will help my footy, and hopefully help the younger guys progress a bit quicker."

But security of tenure, with a partner, a 10-year-old daughter and a six-month-old baby to look out for, is also important. And having signed a three-year deal with the Magpies, Varcoe has the stability he realised may not have been the case for much longer at Simonds Stadium.

"I've gone through this with my management group; it wasn't just something I made up in my head," he says. "The way Geelong is heading with its list and a number of older blokes who'll finish up in the next couple of years, I did have a few questions about where I would have fitted in, not so much next year but beyond that."

Buckley is treating Varcoe as something of a blank canvas looking to next season, with versatility, as well his outside run, being a factor in Collingwood's decision to bring him into the mix.

"I pretty much played everywhere this year, but was able to settle down back in the last half of the season, learning the finer details of defence," Varcoe says. "I started to feel comfortable, got to know my role, and I think I took some confidence out of that, knowing that I can still play forward or on a wing or possibly in the middle. I'll play anywhere."

Pre-season starts mid-November. and Varcoe, once he and his family have made the shift up from Geelong, is ready to hit it at full tilt.

"I'm really going to enjoy this transitional phase," he says. "It's exciting, it's a great opportunity, and it's even exciting just talking to my partner and daughter about it. That's a motivating factor for me. I play because I love the game, but they weren't there when I started at Geelong, and to start another chapter and to do it all together is pretty special."