GEELONG is set to be bolstered by the return of captain Joel Selwood and small forward Luke Dahlhaus for Thursday night's clash against Fremantle at Optus Stadium.
The experienced pair were rested for last Saturday's win over Carlton.
It poses a selection headache for Chris Scott and his coaching staff, with further team changes to be considered off a short five-day break.
LADDER PREDICTOR Where will your club finish?
"Dahlhaus and Selwood are almost certain that they will play (but) the outs are a little bit harder to work out right at the moment," Scott said.
"We have a plan, but it's always subject to how guys pull up and the circumstances of a particular week.
"In a five-day break, those things become even more important.
"We are in a position where we've got 26-28 guys we'd love to have in the team and not enough space.
"So there is a little bit of an onus on us to be a bit creative with that selection without destabilising the cohesion of the team."
Meanwhile, Scott has dismissed concerns over the Optus Stadium surface after torrential rain in Perth during the build-up to Monday night's West Coast-North Melbourne encounter made life difficult for both sets of players, who often struggled to keep their feet on the heavy and slippery ground.
THE RUN HOME Where will your club finish?
Further wet weather is forecast before the Dockers and Cats do battle in a contest that could go a long way towards determining both sides' positions in the top eight as the finals race heats up.
"They've had a lot of rain and it looked a little heavy (on Monday), but I thought the players were able to handle the ball OK," Scott said.
"It wasn't as if it was impossible to play something like dry-weather footy.
"It was certainly a bit heavier under foot, but we've been a bit used to that here (in Geelong) as well.
"The ground staff here have had a real challenge on their hands with increased workload on the ground and more rain than usual.
"So the ground would have to be really, really heavy to be something that we haven't played through the last few weeks."
Third-placed Geelong is within one win of top spot on the ladder, but could finish the round outside the top four if it loses to Fremantle.
The Dockers have won three of their past four games to break into the top eight.
