While the Magpies organised an exchange of draft picks for Darren Jolly six months ago, Fraser was tending to his newborn son Ted.

"It was actually an interesting time because I'd just had my first child," Fraser said yesterday.

"It (the trade) was going on in the periphery, but I wasn't too concerned about it.

"I had a good chat to my manager Dan Richardson and he put a really good spin on it.

"He said, `It will be good for you because for 10 years you've been doing it (playing ruck) often one out, and it does take its toll'.

"After talking to Dan and when I took a deep breath, I thought it's actually a good thing, and anything that helps the footy club is a positive.

"Yeah, there were a few doubts, of course, but I just saw it as a challenge, a different role, go forward and kick some goals.

"I'm still going to ruck; I might be able to play more of a natural type of game.

"I'm hoping it will be a good thing for me."

When the Magpies challenge St Kilda at Etihad Stadium tonight, Jolly will be in ruck, with Fraser his back-up, starting forward.

Fraser said fatherhood had changed his perspective on life and football, teaching him they are not one and the same any more.

He still gets nervous to the point of retching before a game, still bleeds when the team loses and/or he contributed, but there's no doubt he is captivated by fatherhood.

"I reckon it settles you a bit," he said.

                      

 WHEN Josh Fraser is asked to reflect on his 10 years at AFL level, a light-hearted chat suddenly turns serious.

"I'm proud of my career," he says solemnly.

Then, almost as quickly, he is Jovial Josh again.

"Look, I probably get a bit defensive ... about my career.

"To survive 10 years in the AFL is a fair effort, I reckon. I'm pretty proud of the way I've carried my workload.

"I don't have the individual accolades that a lot of other players have, but I've been a part of a great club for 10 years and played finals (11 including two Grand Finals).

"I came the same time as Mick (Malthouse), Benny Johnson and Leon Davis, and the club had finished on the bottom of the ladder (in 1999).

"I think people see me as laid-back, a bit laconic, which I probably am, but I think about the game a hell of a lot."

Fraser is a popular whipping boy. He is big (202cm, 100kg), has been on the scene for a long time (193 games), is a No. 1 draft pick (1999) and has his bad days.

When he does, he can look almost disinterested.

The man himself acknowledges the perception.

"I've seen myself on tape after some games and I've thought, "S---, I don't look like I'm going hard enough', but at no stage during a game do I think, "S---, I'm not putting in'," he said.

"One thing that's always amazed me in footy is how far apart perception and reality are for the general public and, at times, the media."

It's not a whinge, merely an observation without malice, because Fraser and malice aren't on familiar terms. Some at Collingwood would like to see a nastier streak.

Fraser is a country boy (Mansfield) who will head back to the bush after his football career, content to spend his time among the sheep and cattle on his family's 121-hectare property.

The birth of his first child, Ted, six months ago has given him a different perspective on life and football.

They aren't one and the same any more.

He still gets nervous to the point of retching before a game, still bleeds when the team loses and/or he contributed, but there's no doubt he is captivated by fatherhood.

"I reckon it settles you a bit," he said.

"The good thing about footy is you always get another crack seven days later. As a player, you have to move on pretty quickly otherwise you get bogged down in what happened the week before and all the negativity.

"It's been trying at times (but) is anything in life easy? I'm a bit reluctant to pull out the violin and say how hard it's been. When you look at some of the things other people have to deal with, it's pretty insignificant really."

"I really liked what Chris Judd said on The Footy Show - that he doesn't run around trying to change people's perceptions. To me, that's out of my control.

"I can control the way I approach what I've got to do but, if people see me as laconic or not trying, that's not the case at all. It's who I am; it's the way I play."

After "taking a deep breath" as he came to terms with Collingwood's decision to recruit ruckman Darren Jolly between seasons, Fraser is happy in his redefined role.

"I'm enjoying it, a bit of ruck, a bit forward. I probably haven't played forward for maybe six or seven years. I'd probably have to go back to 2002-03.

"It is a bit different for me, although I was probably recruited as a forward."

He arrived at Collingwood as a young man tall enough to be a ruckman, yet a natural forward.

"When I got to the club, Damian Monkhorst had just left and Steven McKee was really the only recognised ruckman. I probably played that role through necessity, but I really enjoyed it and wanted to develop my game in that area, and I saw myself as a ruckman.

"This period now is more of an opportunity for me to go forward, pinch-hit in the ruck, not smash myself every week then come to the latter part of the season and be buggered."

Which is what happened last year. Fraser missed the last two games after aggravating a chronic knee problem in the qualifying final loss to St Kilda.

It was rumoured that coach Malthouse was disappointed with Fraser's indecision leading up to the final against Adelaide, and left him out.

Fraser said he was never going to play that week, having had his troublesome knee drained three times.

"You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't," he said.

"If you put your hand up to play and you play poorly, you get strung up in Federation Square, whereas if you don't put your hand up because you know you're not right, you're a soft----.

"I wasn't right. I think it was unanimous (at the club) that I was a long way off it."

He says his physical problems are over or under control.

"All good," he says. No more problems with his back and his knees that are in reasonable working order after 10 years.

"My body over the past couple of years has been my biggest hurdle because I know that, when I've been fit, I've played some pretty good footy.

"Yeah, 2006 was a good year, '03 was a good year (but) I would argue that at stages last year I probably played my best footy."

He started the season in scintillating form, but things went awry in the Anzac Day clash with Essendon.

Not only did the Bombers snatch an unlikely victory, commentator and former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas later accused him of football's cardinal sin, to "dog it" (deliberately avoid a contest). Fraser's critics say his subsequent form was another example of him failing to respond to the heat.

Maybe so, but it might be different these days, now that he is a father.

"I'm going in Monday morning, I'll get my a--- kicked by the coach, but I'll get on with it. It's important, bloody important, but it's not life or death."

The Anzac Day fallout was a tough time for him, but he goes back to 2002, his third season, as his testing time.

"My first final (in Adelaide), I don't think I had a kick and sat on the bench for most of the day. I wouldn't have been crook on Mick if he dropped me, but he stuck with me."

Fraser spent the next week wondering whether he had cost himself a spot in Collingwood's GF team, but held his place and kicked three goals in the nine-point loss to the Brisbane Lions.

He admitted his faith was shaken when Collingwood announced it wanted Jolly.

"I'd just had my first child. It (the trade) was going on in the periphery, but I wasn't too concerned about it.

"I had a good chat to my manager Dan Richardson and he said, `It will be good for you because for 10 years you've been doing it (playing ruck), often one out, and it does take its toll'.

"And when I took a deep breath, I thought it's actually good and anything that helps the footy club is a positive.

"Yeah, there were a few doubts, of course, but I just saw it as a challenge, a different role, go forward and kick some goals. I'm still going to ruck; I might be able to play more of a natural type of game. I'm hoping it will be a good thing for me."

Fraser started the season with a solid contribution against the Bulldogs, but, like 15-18 of his teammates, had a quiet one against Melbourne.

His decade in the AFL has been an interesting journey.

Every club in the competition wanted him as a kid.

He was so advanced, he played 21 of a possible 22 games in his first season at 18 - it would have been all 22 had Malthouse not rung him mid-season and told him he had a sore hamstring and needed a week's rest.

He kicked 37 goals in 2003 playing largely as a forward. A return of 25-30 this year would make him more than a handy tall forward.

It has been a modest start, with one goal from two games, and he would like nothing more than to add two or three tonight.

"It's a big one," he says. It's not an opinion, but a statement of fact.

"They're (St Kilda) in really good form. We rate `em. We know it's going to be a real hard-fought contest. The way they approach their footy, it's not lost on us."

                        

Josh Fraser frustrated at Magpies: Dale Thomas 

DALE Thomas says out-of-favour ruckman Josh Fraser has been frustrated by his role at Collingwood this year.

Thomas told Nova 100's Hughesy and Kate that 2010 been difficult for Fraser since the arrival of Darren Jolly from the Swans at the start of the year.

"I think it's just getting frustrating for Josh with 'Jols' coming in, he is playing a different role and it takes time to adapt to different roles, especially if you are a bigger player,'' Thomas said.

Magpie great Peter Moore told the Herald Sun today that Fraser had been "murdered and crucified" by being played in the ruck at Collingwood, believing Fraser could provide more benefit in the forward line.

"Give him three weeks and 70 per cent (time) in the forward line and see what he's got. I bet you'd get an average of three goals a game," Moore said.

With Fraser's career tally sitting on 199 games, and with coach Mick Malthouse's preference for Leigh Brown as a pinch-hitting ruckman, his career looks to be stalled as he languishes in the VFL for the second week in a row.

Thomas said Fraser's game last week against Box Hill was "unbelievable" and that Fraser "pretty much single handedly got them over the line''.

His 18-possession, three-goal game was labelled by VFL coach Gavin Brown as "awesome'', but it was not enough for him to earn a senior recall, instead being named as an emergency for the Pie's clash against West Coast.

Fraser will line up against North Ballarat on Saturday.

AFL great Peter Moore believes Josh Fraser has been "crucified" by Collingwood and argues Fraser is not a ruckman, but a key forward.

Moore said Fraser, whom he mentored between 2001-03, was lacking confidence and needed more time in the senior team.

Fraser has played 59 per cent game time in eight matches this year, compared with 75 per cent in 17 games last year.

Moore wants Fraser to be played as a permanent forward, preferably deep and in rotation with Chris Dawes, and with Travis Cloke higher up the ground.

"No doubt his confidence has been knocked around because of a lack of opportunity, and he's out of the leadership group, and therefore he hasn't been playing very well," said Moore, who won Brownlow Medals at Collingwood (1979) and Melbourne (1984).

"They've lost a bit of faith in him. I don't think they rate him, or (coach) Mick (Malthouse) rates him as high as others do. I don't think Mick rates him as a forward.

Malthouse said this week he was confident Fraser and ruck option Cameron Wood would return to the team.

"We've got to find that jumping power back and that strength in his legs," Malthouse said.

"He's a beautifully skilled ruckman, but he's got to find the ball 15-20 times, I believe, in that period that he's on the ground, to have an impact."

Moore argued Fraser was not a ruckman and had been "murdered and crucified" in that position.

" I would play Fraser deep because Travis has a very strong lead and a big motor and is a booming kick. I would play (Cloke) up the ground," Moore said.

"Fraser would be a pretty difficult match-up.

"I really believe when he started he was as capable as (St Kilda captain Nick) Riewoldt at centre half-forward.

"And when he was playing forward, Anthony Rocca was the key target with Chris Tarrant behind him, so Josh was the third target and we had to figure out a way for him to get the ball. He was able to do it because he's clever."

The Magpies currently prefer Dawes, Cloke and Leigh Brown as their three forward options, with Brown relieving Darren Jolly in the ruck.

"Does Dawes warrant 80 per cent of game time or does Fraser? I know who I'd rather have," Moore said.

"Give him three weeks and 70 per cent (time) in the forward 50m and see what he's got. I bet you'd get an average of three goals a game."

Moore watched Collingwood's VFL game against Box Hill last Sunday and was seen talking to Fraser.

Magpies VFL coach Gavin Brown labelled Fraser's three-goal, 18-possession performance as "awesome".