Cloke, 24, was taken with much fanfare by Collingwood under the father-son rule in 2002, and agrees his career has been something of a slow burn to this point.
"This is my seventh season and it's gone very, very quickly I can tell you," he says.
"There have been four shoulder recos so it has been a bit of an up and down journey at times. There have been a few times where I've thought, 'What the hell am I doing?'
"Round three will be my 50th game so it could be the longest 50th milestone ever, but I've enjoyed it."
Cloke firmly believes his current physical condition coupled with the nurturing environment he finds himself in at Visy Park will allow him to reach new heights this season.
"My shoulders aren’t a hassle any more. I don't even strap them now which is good - I can save the club a few dollars in strapping," he says.
"But seriously, I'm absolutely loving being at Carlton. They're a great bunch of boys and we've got a great coach. Everything just seems to be going really well at the moment.
"I'm feeling really good at the moment and I've probably been playing my best footy over the last 12 months."
It's a scenario that appeared unlikely after an untidy divorce with the Pies in 2006.
"Some people think that I found it a lot harder than what I really felt myself at the time, but I pretty much live life like whatever happens, happens," he says of his departure from the Lexus Centre.
"If it was meant to be that I wasn't going to get another chance then so be it. I gave it a real crack and I probably got more of a chance than a lot of people could say they have [had].
"Having said that I definitely had unfinished business and I was just rapt to get picked up by Carlton."
Cloke's shoulder problems restricted him to six games in his first season in navy blue, but he enjoyed a clear run in 2008 when he played 20 games.
Coach Brett Ratten sees him as a tall target up forward, but circumstances last year forced Cloke into the ruck.
That shouldn't be the case this season with the natural development of Matthew Kreuzer and Shaun Hampson and the emergence of Sam Jacobs, but Cloke will take it as it comes.
"I just love to play and if I'm out there I don't care what position it is really," he says.
"The Carlton forward line is a great place to be at the moment because you've got the smaller blokes like Eddie Betts and Jeff Garlett putting pressure on as well as someone like Simon Wiggins who just works his butt off every minute of every game.
"Then you've got Fev who takes nearly three opposition players every game. It makes life a lot easier and gives you a lot of confidence to go hard for the ball."
Cloke cites his strong pre-season as a powerful confidence booster with a slight wrist issue before Christmas the only hiccup.
Well, okay, maybe not the only hiccup.
"It got blown up to be a big deal, but to be 100 per cent truthful it didn't bother me," Cloke replies when asked the inevitable question about his unfortunate coming together with teammate Setanta O'hAilpin during an intra-club trial game.
"I said to Juddy after it happened, 'Look you can do what you like [in terms of punishment], but I'm happy to just leave it as it is'.
"Setanta spoke to me about half an hour after the game. It's all good, we're fine. We've moved on and we don't even talk about it. It's not an issue.
"What's happened has happened and it was just a spur of the moment thing. That's footy."
Cloke's 'live and let live' approach to football and life in general these days might have a ring of eastern philosophy to it, but it's based on hard lessons learned over the journey and some words of wisdom from his famous dad that he tries to adhere to.
"Every day's a good day," Cloke says.
"You just try and take it for what it is and make the most of it because you never know when it's going to be over."
