FACED with the imposing task of curbing St Kilda’s tall forwards, Carlton coach Brett Ratten has vowed to attack the Saints rather than sit back and defend at Telstra Dome on Saturday night.

Fraser Gehrig will link up with Nick Riewoldt and Justin Koschitzke for the first time since the 32-year-old veteran's brief retirement, but Ratten is confident the Blues’ new-found midfield depth and the inclusion of important forward Brad Fisher will give Ross Lyon plenty to think about.

“If you get three big forwards who stay pretty much at home can you hurt them the other way? That’s the debate,” Ratten said on Friday.

“I think, with the [midfield] rotations, we need to take teams on a bit through that; it is our strength, I think, with Nick Stevens and Chris Judd. You can also use Kade Simpson through there, Richard Hadley, Andrew Carrazzo, Bryce Gibbs and Jordan Russell.

“They’ve been in fantastic form, St Kilda, they won the NAB Cup and rightly so they should be favourites, and maybe favourites for the premiership or at least up there, but we’ve got nothing to lose against this team.”

Ratten admitted to being a little bemused by the tunnelling furore that erupted following the Saints’ round one win over the Sydney Swans.

“It’s a tough one when you try and use your body sometimes players can spin out of control when players hit them in mid-air,” he said. “But we haven’t instructed our players to be tunnelling or doing any of that.”

Fisher will return to the line-up from a broken thumb two weeks ahead of schedule, but Ratten gave him a clean bill of health and denied the suspension of tall forward Adam Hartlett had influenced his selection.

“No, Fisher was always coming back this week,” he said, adding he had even been a slight chance to return in round one.

“I tried to put the doc under a bit of pressure, he was getting the pin pulled out at four o’clock on a Thursday, and I said ‘how brave is he to maybe push him through for the Richmond game?’ but he needed a scan and, in the end, we just gave him that time to get the guard made; we were always going to play him this round.

“I think he will [make a big difference]. I think Jake Edwards in his first game had three shots at goal as well so he’ll be up there as well, so that will hopefully put St Kilda under pressure.”

The Blues’ coach kept his thoughts on possible defensive match-ups to himself, but admitted he had been disappointed by the way his back six had been left exposed at times during the opening loss to Richmond.

“I think it’s more the supply and how the ball gets down there that might help our backs,” he said.

“I thought Michael Jamison didn’t do too bad a job [last week] … but I think it wasn’t so much about Michael’s job on [Matthew Richardson]. I think it was the team’s responsibility and I think there were players who could have assisted Michael that didn’t really in some situations.

“At the end of the day, Richo got five and was nearly the difference between the two teams.”

Carlton will also regain young ruckman Shaun Hampson this week, with Ratten revealing No.1 draft pick Matthew Kruezer will likely be ready to debut in round three with his hip condition improving.