THE FINAL round of the home-and-away season can present opportunities for teams like the Sydney Swans and Hawthorn to manage players after all but securing top-two finishes.

However, even though the Hawks will have played three games in 12 days on Friday night when meeting Collingwood, I’m not sure anyone will be rested.

They have enough concerns with Matt Suckling, Jack Gunston and Josh Gibson - and the first two are in doubt to play this Friday

Suckling has issues with his left knee and Gunston has re-injured his right knee after a round 19 medial ligament strain, so it's unlikely the Hawks would want to weaken their senior stocks more by taking additional players out.

Gunston landed awkwardly on Saturday night against Geelong causing a combined impact/rotation strain that led to him leaving the field.

He'll have further assessment but I suspect he'll be rested, along with Suckling who had a low-grade twisting injury to his left knee in the second quarter and was subbed out.

I think he'll receive treatment all week and may miss this Friday to be ready for the finals.

Gibson has been limited at training this week with left midfoot soreness but will be tested further on Friday - I expect him to play.

Cyril Rioli remains a significant dilemma but the Hawks are not likely to rush him in.

He is now in the ninth week of his recurrent left hamstring injury and is running out of time to develop match conditioning.

It would be a huge risk to play him without any match preparation.

It will be a major decision as to whether he's used in the finals with the Hawks knowing he could still break down at a critical time.

When it comes to the Swans, I think they would be nervous about risking Josh Kennedy after he missed only one game with a low-grade left hamstring injury.

If there is any concern at all later in the week, he'll have another week off to be ready for the finals.

A recurrent injury would see him miss 3-4 weeks at best.

Sam Reid missed on the weekend with chronic hip soreness and is probably going to need another week off to be available for the finals.

The Swans subbed Kurt Tippett out of their win over the Western Bulldogs to ice both knees, which is part of his chronic soreness maintenance program.

It was simply smart workload management by the Swans at three-quarter time and I expect he'll be available to play if he's required this weekend against Richmond. 

The Tigers will benefit from the return of Dustin Martin for this must-win clash.

Martin had a week off as a precaution with low-grade hamstring tightness.

He had the hamstring scanned and there was no significant damage shown but the Tigers took the opportunity to give him a rest and he is expected to train and be available to play.

Geelong is unlikely to roll the dice with Steve Johnson against the Brisbane Lions on Saturday night with the Cats continuing to manage his right foot stress injury.

There is no doubt Johnson will be available for the finals but the Cats are unlikely to play him until the first week at the earliest.

Justin Westhoff landed awkwardly in the final quarter of Port Adelaide's win over Carlton and jarred his right knee.

The Power are confident he only has a capsular strain at the back of his knee and will assess him later in the week to see whether he is fully ready to play.

At worst, he will miss this week's clash with Fremantle but I expect him to play.

For the Dockers, Matthew Pavlich was a late withdrawal from their win over the Brisbane Lions having developed tightness in his quad in the warm up.

There is still a risk of damage to the muscle this week so Freo will take a very conservative approach but are hoping he will recover with a light week at training. 

As for Collingwood, there will be a review of its training and player management programs as a result of the high incidence of soft tissue and other joint injuries this year.

The Magpies have had probably the worst past month of injuries of any side in the competition.

Their horrible injury curse continued against Greater Western Sydney on Saturday with Dane Swan and Clinton Young both experiencing left hamstring injuries.

They finished the game on the sidelines and their seasons are likely over with the wounded Pies needing to beat the Hawks on Friday night to remain a chance to play finals.

They would usually miss 2-3 weeks at best with this type of hammy injuries.

Also in the same game, tagger Brent Macaffer suffered a right anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.

He has already had a traditional reconstruction on his left knee back in 2012 and will undergo another one now on his other side.

If all goes well, his best-case scenario will be to return in July 2015.

And, the Pies' top draft selection from last year in Matthew Scharenberg has not played any senior games yet and unfortunately ruptured his ACL in the VFL.

I expect him to have similar surgery to Macaffer and his timeframe will also see him return at best around the latter third of next season. 

They should get back Jamie Elliot and Heritier Lumumba for the clash with the Hawks.

Elliot has missed two weeks with left hamstring tightness while Lumumba didn't face the Giants because of a corked thigh.

And, Carlton captain Marc Murphy was one of five players to sustain concussion on the weekend.

His was arguably the most severe – he was transferred to hospital for precautionary scans but was cleared of any damage and will undergo the usual concussion assessment program this week.

He remains in some doubt to play Essendon on Saturday given the recovery time is beyond seven days for most concussions of that severity.