Less than seven months after contemplating an uncertain football future, Malceski has returned to the form that saw him finish second in the 2007 Bob Skilton Medal.
The running half back has thrived in the new look Swans outfit, averaging 22 touches per game in the first two rounds and deploying his penetrating kick to damaging effect.
But at the end of his disappointing 2009 season, Malceski admitted the thought that he might be delisted had crossed his mind.
In his first full year after undergoing a radical LARS knee reconstruction in early 2008, he failed to recapture his best form, eventually playing just 12 games as the Swans missed the finals for the first time in seven years.
"I was doing all the training during the season and I just couldn't put it into games. It was getting frustrating," he said.
"When you're in bad form, those things run through your head - whether you're going to be gone at the end of the year or not.
"When I sat down and looked through it, I was a bit nervous at the end of the year but Roosy and the coaching staff just told me to come back fresh next year, which I did."
The 25-year-old said he realised something needed to change while watching the seniors play one of their final games of the year.
"I reminisced about my year and how disappointing it was. I wrote down a few things and I got peer assessed by the group, and I knew what was coming," he said.
"That wasn't a surprise, but from that day I just wanted to make amends and come back and really stamp my authority on the pre-season."
Malceski paired up with teammate Rhyce Shaw and the pair embarked on a relentless running schedule aimed at being in top shape when the Swans began their pre-season in late October.
For the first time in eight years at the Swans, he didn't miss a session of the club's notoriously arduous preparation.
But even with a solid fitness base and some strong performances in the intra-club games, Malceski said he was nervous when it came to testing himself against bona fide opposition.
"Just before the first NAB Cup game against Carlton, I was just sitting in the rooms, thinking 'I've done all this hard work, now it's time to show it'," he recalled.
"I knew that I had the fitness and I think that really helps when you go out on the ground."
A renewed focus on doing the team things first - "My craft's running and kicking [but] that comes after I do my defensive job" - also helped.
But in true Bloods fashion, Malceski is under no illusions that his battle to regain the respect of his teammates is complete.
"Obviously the job's not done. We've only played two games and I think I've got to prove myself for the whole year," he said.
"I just really want to be consistent each week this year and just play my role for the team."
