Some Collingwood players have crashed and burned in the heat of AFL finals past.

Not Steele Sidebottom - the curiously-named second-year midfielder who seems to excel on the big stage.

At 18, Sidebottom was one Collingwood player to stand up in last year's finals series.

His 25 disposal, best-on-ground effort for the Pies in their semi-final win over Adelaide last year franked his big-match temperament as he not only got plenty of the football, but made good decisions to go with it.

Go back 12 months earlier, and Sidebottom managed a 10-goal haul in the Victorian under-18 TAC Cup grand final for Murray Bushrangers just prior to the 2008 national draft, rocketing to prominence among AFL recruiters.

At the time AFL talent manager Kevin Sheehan described the performance as "just about the most brilliant game that I've ever seen at underage level".

"I suppose everyone's the same - they want to play well in the big matches," he told AAP.

"I haven't always performed well enough on the big stages but I've been lucky enough to get a few kicks in finals.

"Perhaps there's a bit more hunger in the big games, a bit more at stake, but I don't put it down to anything in particular."

The youngest of five boys in a family hailing from the central Victorian town of Shepparton - all of whom play football - Sidebottom appears to have coolness under pressure covered.

But after his first AFL season, he realised that his fitness needed work and has put in the hard yards on both that aspect of his game - and building his own confidence to compete at the elite level.

It's resulted in the teenager blossoming into a Collingwood regular - playing all but one of the Pies' home-and-away matches this season in their march to the finals.

"Last year's helped me out a lot. I couldn't run out games last year," he said.

"In the first year, you're going into games against blokes who've been there for five or 10 years so you're starting below them already.

"This year I've got a bit more belief in myself. I feel like I belong there and can hold my own there.

"And in your second year, your teammates have got a bit more trust in you so that helps."

Yet another test of his finals credentials looms in the Pies' qualifying final clash with the Western Bulldogs at the MCG on Saturday night.

Should Sidebottom go on to be part of Collingwood's first grand final win in 20 years, it would be his second premiership triumph for the season.

In June, he was awarded world sport's Name Of The Year by an American web site on a public vote, beating such interesting monikers as Cameroon soccer player Banana Yaya, US fitness trainer Charity Beaver and retired motor racing driver Dick Trickle.

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