GEELONG will have a full-strength squad to choose from for Thursday night's qualifying final against Port Adelaide with Rhys Stanley and Tom Atkins cleared to play.
Stanley hasn't featured in the Cats' last three matches due to an ongoing groin injury, while Atkins was managed with soreness in the round 18 win over Sydney.
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Both performed strongly in sessions on Saturday night and Monday morning and are poised to be in line for selection.
"I don't want to pre-empt selection too much at this stage, but it is nice we seem to have pretty good availability," coach Chris Scott said on Monday afternoon.
Stanley looms as a replacement for Esava Ratugolea with Scott giving a nod to the Cats' recent ruck structure that has included Mark Blicavs and one of Stanley, Ratugolea or Josh Jenkins.
Atkins' fitness will put pressure on Jack Steven to retain his spot, while the Cats have confirmed Zach Tuohy as a certain starter despite knee soreness that he continues to manage.
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The Power are also set to be bolstered with key inclusions Ryan Burton (quad), Tom Clurey (hamstring) and Zak Butters (suspension).
Scott also declared that Gary Ablett in fantastic shape despite just playing one game since departing Queensland isolation on September 15.
"I think Gary's in better shape now, albeit with less match practice, than he was last year," Scott said.
"And he's probably symbolic of a few of the decisions we've made to hold guys back (including Joel Selwood) to prioritise freshness and health coming into a finals series maybe at the expense of some match practice."
The Cats will fly up to 28 players to Adelaide on Wednesday before returning as a squad on Friday. The players overlooked at AFL level will then participate in a scratch match with Richmond and Brisbane players on Saturday.
Scott also indicated that the Cats' next game (semi-final or preliminary final), which would come as a 'home' fixture, would likely be staged at the Gabba.
Meantime, with interest in free agents Jeremy Cameron (Greater Western Sydney), Brad Crouch (Adelaide), Jack Viney (Melbourne) and Joe Daniher (Essendon), Scott said he would continue to be involved in conversations to entice new talent.
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"I've got some confidence in my ability to walk and chew gum at the same time," he said.
"We can't just ignore all the things that are going on outside our team.
"There's 10 teams in the competition moving on really quickly, we need to make decisions.
"None of those decisions are mine in isolation, I'm part of a group that works on those things and we've been working hard on it all year so we're pretty well advanced in our thinking there."
