COLLINGWOOD coach Mick Malthouse has refused to guarantee any of his returning players a berth in Saturday's qualifying final against West Coast at the MCG.
Captain Nick Maxwell, who has been out since he had his right thumb operated on after round 21, and Leon Davis, who missed Friday night's 96-point loss to Geelong with hamstring tightness, are expected to be available.
Heath Shaw is also free to come in after serving his eight-week suspension, while Chris Tarrant (ankle), Travis Cloke (knee) and Ben Johnson (knee) were sore after Friday night but deemed fit by football manager Geoff Walsh on SEN on Monday morning.
Still, Malthouse said none of them were absolute certainties to play, adding he would take almost the entire week to decide on his final side.
"It's Monday and I want to analyse the West Coast game again and the time we played them before, and on top of that, it's horses for courses," Malthouse said.
"What we've got to be careful about doing is going with players who are a long time out of the game, or coming back just off injury, and weigh it up and see where our support can come from if they tire or whatever the case may be.
"I can't guarantee anything at this stage because we really haven't sat down to analyse the side."
Compounding the situation is the fact Maxwell, Davis and Shaw all play in the backline, which raises a question on whether all three should return together.
Maxwell said all three were available after he trained strongly on Monday morning.
Maxwell had his first competitive hit-out on Friday in an intra-club practice match.
Tarrant and Cloke didn't train on Monday, and Malthouse was unable to give a definitive update on their fitness.
However, he emphasised that none of his players would be named if there was any risk of them failing to get through a game.
"We need to have a look at that by the end of the week, and that's when we'll make a decision," he said.
"One thing is absolutely certain - you never should go into a finals game expecting an injured player is going to get through unless he is supported by the medical staff and himself enough to know he can get through.
"I'm not dismissing players who are injured but if there is a doubt that they'll get through a match, they won't play."
Malthouse admitted the Magpies had been met with more challenges this year than last, with injuries and suspensions hitting them in the second half of the season.
But he said the silver lining was that Andrew Krakouer, Simon Buckley and Tarrant had come in, and players like Alex Fasolo, Luke Rounds, Ben Sinclair, Lachlan Keefe and Tom Young had made their debuts and given them depth.
"Every year is different. You can never say you're going to go in and because you've got the same team, that things are going to work out the same," he said.
"Clearly, we've had interruptions throughout the year.
"If you don't have a lot of injuries, and we've had as many as most people, but we've been able to overcome most of them because we've played young kids.
"It's strengthened the list and it's given us more players than what we had late last year. The good thing is we have double up players - for instance, if Leon Davis is not right, then we can go to Luke Rounds or Ben Sinclair.
"Are they as good as Leon Davis? Probably not but only because of lack of experience, but they still can play those roles."
Malthouse said it was the Eagles' overall structure that was behind their rapid improvement this season.
"One thing that is different between West Coast this year and last year is that their senior players are all available, and they've had consistency with their run of injuries, and they've got young kids who have come up," he said.
"We will account for all and sundry when we sit down as a match committee and work it out.
"We're not going to go and be bluffed by names or last year's win, but we'll go by what's available in front of us, who we're playing and make the adjustments accordingly."
Jennifer Witham covers Collingwood news for the AFL Website. Follow her on Twitter @AFL_JenWitham
