The Magpie ruckman has made an encouraging start to his third season, to the extent where respected analyst Leigh Matthews said last weekend he was convinced Grundy would eventually make the All-Australian team.

Apart from being known for what he has done - and is getting better at doing - for the Magpies, the 21-year-old who focused on basketball until five years ago, is also widely reputed to be "a different cat". The tag bemuses Grundy, on the basis that he expected players would have interests outside football, just as most employees would have an interest unrelated to their regular job.

In a trait that has been noticed - and welcomed - by his coach, Grundy is fully focused on football whenever he is around the club, and conspicuously spends a lot of time at the Magpies' training base, but he quarantines his football to that period. When he's physically away from the club, he's mentally away from it, too.

"Because I haven't grown up with a football culture, I suppose, the way I've been brought up is just to be yourself, your own person, [albeit now] within the guidelines of the club. When I'm here [at the club] I obviously give 100 per cent to the program, but when I'm away from the club, I try to tip into other things that can help me later in life," he said.

"I try to be a holistic person and not just be a footballer or a uni student. I want to be across everything so I can leave the game, when I'm 30 or whatever, as a solid citizen."

Early in his AFL career, Grundy heard a comment from former Essendon spearhead Matthew Lloyd that strongly resonated with him, "that his attitude towards life was very like a pendulum, based on whether he was playing good football or bad". He became determined to avoid the same situation.

"This year I've just been trying to stay in the middle [of the range] with that pendulum and not let footy dictate whether I wake up happy or wake up sad," Grundy said. "I live a pretty balanced life, I think. Uni really helps me do that, and the people around me."

It was a combination of his intent not to let football be all consuming and some yearning for home in Adelaide, that saw him move out of the house he shared with fellow Magpies Adam Oxley, Ben Kennedy, Tim Broomhead and Jackson Ramsay, the type of stereotypical young male sharehouse where cricket was played in the corridors.

"Coming over here, I was a bit homesick at the start and didn't really enjoy [my living arrangements]. I enjoy my own space and love interests outside of football, so going to work and coming home and having more football at home was just a little bit suppressing at times," he said.

Rather than move on out on his own, Grundy jumped at the chance to move in with his aunt, Louise Palmer, a tertiary education executive who had long lived in Melbourne, a "co-exist" arrangement that happily continues. With the exception of his grandfather, who adores discussing his footballing exploits, football is rarely raised by his family and friends.

"Most of my conversations at home aren't about glorifying whether I have a good game or not. It's more about real life stuff. It's good. It kind of brings you back to earth," he said.

Grundy did well enough in his final year of high school to finish with a tertiary entrance ranking of 91.5. His decision to shun "strenuous" subjects, such as chemistry and physics, came back to bite him when he signed up to a human movement degree in his final year in Adelaide. As a result he "pretty much had to learn high school biology in three weeks".

His girlfriend Rachael had been accepted directly into a physiotherapy course and found it hilarious he was so oblivious to science he did not know the definition of a cell. Nevertheless, she helped him cram, even though he became highly competitive in their quizzes.

"You talk about structures in footy, but I was talking to her about who knew the membrane potential [of cells] and stuff like that, and all the anatomy stuff that goes with it," he said. "She's flown past me now, but that's kind of helped me to stay on the study [plan] I guess."

After Grundy's debut season in which he focused exclusively on settling in, he investigated a return to study. He found that if he took up a health science degree and got high distinctions on his first four subjects, he could likely transfer into physiotherapy. Even though it would involve re-doing two subjects he had already completed in Adelaide he, with the assistance of an AFL Players Association grant, began a plan to "smash out" one subject per semester.

That he is halfway to achieving that goal - he scored high distinctions in both his subjects last year - has surprised some of his uni peers who were studying full time. "People thought I was a bit of a freak because they'd just presumed I was going to be a stereotypical footballer," he said.

Grundy has begun ambassadorial work for La Trobe University. It is that role that on Saturday will take him to the VCE and Careers Expo at Caulfield racecourse, where he hopes to help high school students be more decisive about their tertiary ambitions than he was when he left school.

Grundy's preparation for a career in physiotherapy extends to pestering all the Magpies' physios for detailed technical explanations of what they are doing and why.

"I'm passionate about this and it's what I want to do after footy, so why not ask these questions and learn while I'm here. It's like a little work experience thing for a student - but I'm a player," he said.

To start his physiotherapy degree next year, Grundy will have to get high distinctions in his last two subjects. The latter is posing a dilemma for him as the business end of it will coincide with his annual end-of-season break from Collingwood.

"I'm struggling to weigh up whether to go on a holiday or just to smash out that last subject, finish first year and apply for that transfer, because if I don't finish it this semester I'll have to wait a whole other year," he mused.

Knowing Grundy, even from just a 45-minute chat, the outcome is inevitable.