He thrived on both. It meant that at the end of the year when Collingwood offered him the promise of midfield game time and the certainty that those games would be in front of big crowds, he knew he wanted to play for the Magpies.

Greenwood had not really thought he would not be at North next year. Not when he kept holding his spot in the team. Not when he kept playing well.  But as the season dragged on and the offer to remain at the Roos did not significantly improve from the initial one-year deal, he suddenly had to consider the alternatives.

"We didn't really start talking again until later in the year, but we were just miles apart for most of the year," Greenwood said.

"It is a bit hard to put that out of your mind as you are playing because you getting told one thing by the coach about how important you are and how well you are valued in the club and then it is another thing getting a one-year deal, so it cut a little bit deep but I just kept playing footy.

"I was playing footy, I was in the seniors so I thought it would work itself out and in the end it did - it just wasn't with North."

When he made up his mind to go he told North he wanted to be traded to Collingwood. He had been courted by the Western Bulldogs, visited the Whitten Oval, sat with the footy department and was given a tempting offer. But the big club with the marquee games held an allure of its own.

"Within three or four days of me letting the club know that was where I wanted to go, [Ryan] Griffen wanted to walk out, and [Adam] Cooney and the coach [Brendan McCartney] were going. It was a bit surprising after you go in there and talk to them.  The decision in the end wasn't all about the money - it was a factor in it - but in the end it was about the opportunity and the security of a four-year deal," Greenwood said of the move to the Magpies.

The Dayne Beams request for a trade helped facilitate the move – Collingwood passed on pick 25 to North that it had received from Brisbane in order to get Greenwood – but Magpie coach Nathan Buckley said it was only convenient for the deals to be tied.

"Levi would have come in regardless of Beamsy's situation," Buckley said.

Greenwood finished top three in North's best and fairest this year, clearly his best result at the club. The reason for the career-best year he reasons was simply opportunity. Andrew Swallow was out injured early in the year and Greenwood got a string of games and he seized his opportunity.

He is hoping the opportunity presented by Beams' departure offers the same sort of possibilities.

"I am still pretty versatile in my role. I was tagging, I was through the middle and then I was even up forward towards the end of the year. I think I have done about 50-50 tagging to just playing in the midfield,  which is good. I don't mind tagging - I think it makes you harder to drop when you have another string to your bow," he said.

"What I really look forward to at Collingwood is I feel there is a spot right in the middle there for me with Beams leaving now and it is one thing they made clear to me at the start was that there will be a spot there for me provided you have a big pre-season and you get yourself right.

"I got a taste for playing in front of big crowds this year and I really enjoyed it. You get a taste for big games and the momentum in games swinging through the crowd and you just want more of it. We had a bit of that at North but not so much as Collingwood and it would have been less at Bulldogs and North. Although they do not get huge crowds they are very strong and they do give you quite a good push."