WILL Minson's career at Whitten Oval is secure despite the All Australian ruckman being out of favour for much of the season, Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge says.
The Dogs come up against arguably the AFL's best ruckman in North Melbourne's Todd Goldstein on Saturday.
Preferred big man Tom Campbell will miss the match through injury but Minson, 30, will once again play in the VFL this weekend.
However, his coach says the veteran's future was secure.
"Every week we consider Will and our ruck situation," Beveridge said.
"All it says is that he's next in line or the one after that at the moment.
"Will's a contracted player into 2016, so he's a required player.
"His long-term future is secure."
In Minson's absence, key forward Jack Redpath and versatile big man Jordan Roughead will be employed to battle Goldstein in a game where the Bulldogs' top four aspirations are on the line.
"We've probably gone in different in recent times with how we've played our rucks and it's really worked for us in certain areas," said Beveridge.
"We'll need to be at our best to combat Goldstein tomorrow and we'll have plans in place to do that."
With Roughead set to spend time in the ruck, an undersized defence will face the challenge of containing Ben Brown, Drew Petrie and Jarrad Waite.
With Michael Talia sustaining a foot injury in the loss to the Eagles and Fletcher Roberts playing VFL in his return from an ankle complaint, Beveridge has handed father-son recruit Zaine Cordy a debut to fill the void.
The younger brother of Ayce remarkably becomes the 40th player the Dogs have used in 2015 and the eighth debutant.
"Zaine is a medium (defender) who can play on talls or smalls, he's really dour and tough (and has) a long reach," said Beveridge
"He had a shoulder reco earlier in the year so he's done well to put his name up in lights.
"Zaine really deserves his spot and he'll play well."
Beveridge kept his powder "extremely dry" when asked about the Bulldogs' interest in Carlton's restricted free agent Matthew Kreuzer.
He said he didn't have a preference on whether his young side played a home final at the Bulldogs' fortress of Etihad Stadium or the MCG.
"I don't personally, but if you want to keep going in the finals you have to win at the 'G'," said Beveridge
"I'm actually trying to keep out of the conversation and let our executive make a call on that."