Adam Treloar could be playing for Collingwood next year, on the MCG, before large and adoring crowds. He has the same opportunity as another desirable young midfielder 22 seasons ago, who chose to leave his frontier team and sign with the predatory Pies.

But whereas Nathan Buckley fled from the struggling Brisbane Bears — only to watch them merge and morph into a triple-premiership juggernaut (and then regress back to mediocrity) — Treloar has every reason to remain with his teammates at the unformed, non-traditional club in the northern states with a questionable theme song.

Buckley left, in part, because he couldn't see Brisbane becoming successful. Treloar, if he stays, will do so because he can see premierships on the horizon and to play with his mates. No young team is better placed for team success than Greater Western Sydney. Collingwood, for all their might and power, don't have as much talent, nor do the Tigers, Dons, Dees, Saints, Dogs, Kangas and Blues. The Hawks will be heading south soon, too – such is the gravitational force of the system.

Collingwood believe Treloar will stick with his mates at the Giants, as does another Melbourne club with designs on him.

Conversely, a third Victorian club contacted by this columnist in recent days reckoned he would leave and join the Pies.

Logically, Treloar seems more likely to stay, which is believed to be his preferred position.

GWS has a two-year offer on the table and while he would be paid more to leave — up to $700,000 on a five-year deal — he would run the risk of walking away from a flag.

He joined the Giants at the same time, via the same recruiting gold mine (17-year-old selections, outside the draft) as Jeremy Cameron and Dylan Shiel, both of whom have signed new contracts this year.

Having signed Cameron — the jewel in the crown, who was paid accordingly — the Giants have created a domino effect.

Treloar and West Australian Stephen Coniglio are the only uncontracted hold-outs with cachet.

For the Melbourne clubs, this leaves the Noble Park lad as the last unsigned product on the GWS shelf.

Graeme Allan, the man who poached Buckley from the Bears and Anthony Rocca from the Swans, has succeeded as the GWS game keeper, with a little help from headquarters.

Collingwood has been the club most identified with Treloar.

It has been suggested that the Pies were willing to offer him $750,000 a year for five years, which the black and whites strenuously deny, noting that they could not pay that kind of money to Treloar and look the likes of Jamie Elliott in the eye.

The most pertinent point about Treloar is that, like Shiel, he'll pay a price for staying put – we're talking a sacrifice of six-figure dollars per annum.

Shiel was an even hotter commodity than Treloar, yet didn't seriously test the market and has chosen NOT to go home.

GWS have not become the farm team for Victorian clubs than many imagined; with the possible exception of Dom Tyson (Melbourne), the players they have lost — Taylor Adams (Collingwood), Josh Bruce (St Kilda) — were viewed as  B-graders, rather than elite.

The dismal failure of the Bears and the near-death experience of the Swans from the early '90s has clearly informed the AFL's thinking on Gold Coast and especially the Giants, who were handed more draft picks than even Carlton and Melbourne (of recent times) combined could squander.

That the Suns have faltered is due to a mix of factors, including injuries, culture and, not least, that they haven't got the GWS core of senior players — eg Shane Mumford, Ryan Griffen, Callan Ward, Heath Shaw, Joel Patful — to lead them.

The Collingwood coach knows Treloar, having coached him (and Taylor Adams) in the Victorian Country under 16 team of 2009.

Treloar is a player of unquestioned class, and one that virtually every Melbourne club could do with.

But he is no Buckley.

Treloar, while possessing the speed that clubs crave, doesn't run hard defensively and isn't a natural aerobic beast.

He's also only 182 centimetres, which means he'll never dislodge Nat Fyfe or Marcus Bontempelli in a body-to-body contest.

While all players have warts, he has too many to justify a $750,000 salary, which would place him within the AFL's top 30 players for remuneration.

Contrary to speculation within club-land, the Giants don't need to trade Treloar in order to get under the salary cap.

Nor do they need to offload him for a draft pick in order to find the necessary draft "points" to land their prized academy players, Jacob Hopper and Matthew Kennedy under that arcane, geeky version of the bidding system for father-sons and academy players.

GWS has had eight or so first round choices playing in the reserves this year. Adam Tomlinson, Adam Kennedy, Nathan Wilson and Curtley Hampton are among the players with some currency struggling for games.

Any two of them or another young player on the fringes could get GWS the required brownie points for Hopper and Kennedy.

Unexpectedly, GWS have become a destination club for young players.

If it remains off-Broadway, it is still a theatre where a player can be toasted by the critics and enjoy success with peers.

It follows that  when Treloar takes the field against Collingwood, he must wonder what it would be like to have an army at his back, to be feted in his home town.

But he knows, too, that the lads standing next to him in that orange and charcoal jumper are the young team most likely to be clustered around the MCG dais one day with confetti raining down.