Star Collingwood recruit Darren Jolly insists he's been given no guarantees about the No.1 ruck role and expects to have to fight for his place in the starting line-up next season.

Coming off a career-best season with the Sydney Swans, Jolly would seem the logical choice as No.1 ahead of the injury-prone Josh Fraser - who's likely to spend more time in attack - and youngsters Cameron Wood and Lachlan Keeffe.

But Jolly is taking nothing for granted.

"We haven't spoken about that," said Jolly. "I don't think there's that position there."

"We're all a team and we'll really fight to start and hopefully I'll fit in and work with the young blokes and work with Josh and come up with a strong combination."

While Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse has shown a clear preference to play just one ruckman - an approach which suited Jolly during his five years with the Swans which included the 2005 premiership - the 28-year-old said his preference now would be to ruck in tandem.

"The way the game's going at the moment and how quick it is, it's pretty hard to ruck all over the ground for the whole game," he said.

"I think I was averaging 80 to 90 minutes last year so I think going into a game with two ruckmen who obviously could go hard for 10 minutes then have a spell is beneficial for the club and the player."

"Playing any longer I started to blow up in the last quarter and to really give something to the team you've really got to have a strong output and 80 to 90 minutes in the ruck is beneficial."

"I'll be sitting down with Mick and seeing what he wants to do."

Jolly, whose move back to Melbourne was motivated by family considerations, said coming to Collingwood was always his preference.

"There was a couple (of options) but we sat down with Collingwood first and I was really impressed with the facilities and the way they went about things," said Jolly.

"They're on the verge of winning a grand final so it was more appealing for me to come here."

"Being in Sydney, a successful club, I wanted to go to another successful club."

"The appealing thing is that they're still quite a young list and I've heard fantastic things from Rhyce (Shaw) up in Sydney and nothing but good things about them."

Controversially overlooked for All-Australian selection in 2009, Jolly, who led the competition for hitouts