Geelong skipper Tom Harley has no intention of using his likely retirement at season's end to spur his teammates in Saturday's AFL grand final.

The 31-year-old defender insists he has yet to decide whether to hang up the boots after the clash with St Kilda or push on for one more season.

"Obviously it's a decision that will be discussed by the stakeholders at the club and I'm one of those," Harley said before training on Monday.

"It's really of no concern either way as to how I approach this game.

"It's a grand final, so everyone plays the grand final as if it's the last game of the year - because it is."

And the widely-respected Harley said there was no way he would bring forward any decision on his retirement, insisting it would be inappropriate to try to use it as extra motivation for his teammates.

"I think that would be perhaps detracting from the team ethos," he said.

"It's not about individuals now - I'm just of 22 who will play on the weekend.

"... I'm not lying when I say a decision hasn't been made.

"I guess to play in a grand final at this sort of age is fantastic and I'm really looking forward to the challenge of it."

Another R word that Harley has no truck with this week is redemption.

Whatever happens on Saturday, it won't change the hurt the Cats felt after their shock loss in the 2008 grand final to Hawthorn.

"It's such a futile question," he said.

"You can never erase a grand final loss.

"It's there, it's been done.

"You can only live in the moment and that's certainly what we'll be doing.

"Redemption hasn't been bandied about at all."

But Harley does admit the Cats can draw on their experience of qualifying for a third successive grand final.

In contrast, it will be St Kilda's first appearance on the last Saturday in September since 1997.

"Having a bit of experience certainly doesn't hurt, but in saying that, each year has been very different," he said.

"It was totally unknown in 2007 and then last year and this year we feel like we're really well prepared.

"It certainly doesn't give us a right to win the game but I imagine there wouldn't be too many curve balls that would get thrown at us this week."

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