Collingwood's Dale Thomas and NRL star Billy Slater during their tour of Barcelona. Source: Herald Sun
COLLINGWOOD star Dale Thomas hopes to remain a Magpie beyond next year.
Coach Nathan Buckley has predicted Thomas's contract negotiations could end up the same as the Travis Cloke circus, which haunted the club's finals campaign.
"Hopefully I can have a good year and stay where I am," said Thomas, who becomes a restricted free agent next year.
"The Collingwood Football Club has been fantastic to me. I signed a two-year deal a year ago and that was when the Greater Western Sydney franchise was coming in, but I was lucky enough to stay.
"A lot of my teammates have done the same thing, we have stayed as a group.
"For me it is about getting fit for the start of the year, having a good season personally and hopefully that results in the team having a great year.
"At the end of the season you never know what is going to happen, but hopefully I can stay where I am."
Thomas also spoke for the first time about the death of his good friend and former teammate John McCarthy.
He admitted to struggling to play in the days after the tragedy in Las Vegas in September but it later helped him to put life in perspective.
"It was huge," Thomas said.
"It happened after the first week of the finals and I played like an absolute turd in that first final.
"I literally couldn't have played any worse. So I was still a little bit disappointed and feeling down and then you get news like that.
"It pretty quickly puts the whole football life and life in general in perspective.
"For our group we probably didn't realise how close we all were until after that week and how we got through it.
"The way the group carried themselves, everyone was there for one another.
"At times it takes something as unfortunate as that to happen for blokes to realise how lucky you are and how many good mates you really do have."
Thomas recently returned from a trip to Spain with Melbourne Storm's Billy Slater where the pair featured in promotional shoot for the adizero F50 boot that launches next month.
"I had a ball," he said.
"Just walking around the streets of Barcelona and soaking up the atmosphere, it does make you realise how lucky you are.
"Since the end of the season it's been a pretty good adventure.
"We had a week in Melbourne with the boys just relaxing and enjoying our time together.
"Then I got away to the Telo Islands and Mentawai surfing for a week.
"I spent five nights in Bali then I went to West Timor to a little island called Rote and went surfing again.
"Then I headed back home for a day for my sister's fiance's bucks party - and then it was back on the plane to London for four nights and then here for four nights in Barcelona."
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