Once upon a time, Collingwood awarded its most improved player with an award on Copeland Trophy night.

The award was last active in 1999 and has not been seen since.

But if it was still around today, you can be sure that it would end up in the hands of the man in the No. 45 jumper.

Twelve months ago, Jack Frost had little more than two senior games, a rookie contract and a bung knee to his name.

How quickly things change.

One year later, the rangy full back is one of only five players to have featured in all 16 of Collingwood’s senior games so far in 2014 and has nullified some of the league’s best key forwards in high pressure situations.

It’s little wonder that Frost was the runaway leader as the team’s most improved player in collingwoodfc.com.au’s Player Poll.

Find out who the players think will win the 2014 E.W. Copeland Trophy.

Although six players were nominated, Frost was the only man to register double figures.

The 22-year-old has rarely been beaten despite acting as the lynchpin in one of the league’s youngest backlines.

He ranks sixth in the competition for spoils (103) and equal fifth for blocks (10) while taking 14 intercept marks, which puts him in fifth place on the club leaderboard.

Perhaps the stat that best underlines his importance to the Collingwood outfit is the one that sees him ranked third for minutes played this season.

Frost has played 1662.45 minutes of football this year. Only Travis Cloke (1798.33) and Heritier Lumumba (1699.42) have played more. As a result, he is the fourth-least interchanged Magpie this year.

Others to receive most improved nominations from their teammates were Rising Star candidate Tom Langdon, Jarrod Witts, Jamie Elliott, Josh Thomas and Tyson Goldsack.