Geelong coach Mark Thompson will support any move by the AFL to reduce the number of interchange rotations next season.

The Cats are at the bottom end of the spectrum with 105 interchanges per game this year, well below the burgeoning competition average of 115.

The Western Bulldogs, who top the list with an average of 130, and Collingwood, third with 123, are among the clubs opposed to any cap.

The league is concerned with the possibility of more collisions, the look of the game and the fairness factor, where a team which suffers injuries during a match is unable to compete in rotations with the opposition.

Thompson said he and his players would prefer a lower number of interchange rotations.

"We haven't got a real problem, in fact I've been encouraging our coaches to try and reduce it anyway," Thompson said on Tuesday.

"I think we are 16th - the lowest interchange club. I'm easy, I'm not one to try and shape rules for our advantage.

"I'll just let the AFL decide what they want to do - if they want to bring it down to 80 or 100, they're the rules and they're the rulemakers and we'll just live by them."

Thompson said he "didn't want to be a copycat", making a lot of rotations simply because everyone else was.

"And I feel, and the players feel, that they'd rather stay on the ground a bit longer," he said.

"They can be on the ground for four or five minutes and not get a touch.

"Then two minutes before you take them off they get two or three quick ones and they say to us `why don't you leave me on for another couple of minutes while I've got myself into the rhythm of the game?'

"I think it's good feedback to receive as coach so I'm not fussed either way."

Geelong are set to regain key forward Tom Hawkins for Saturday's clash with Sydney at ANZ Stadium.

Thompson said Hawkins appeared to have fully recovered from a foot injury after spending the last two weeks in the VFL.

But the final decision on a senior recall for the ANZ Stadium encounter will be left up to the player himself.

"We want to play him," Thompson said.

"He's had two games now and he's pulled up fine.

"It's just a matter of what he really wants to do."

Thompson admitted that Hawkins' return would have implications for the Cats' other forwards and ruckmen.

"It does but it just gives us another option - you can't have enough," he said.

"Sometimes people worry about who's going to miss out but what we worry about is the 22 good players we have in and that's more important."

Fellow Cats tall forward James Podsiadly was looking forward to Hawkins' return.

"A guy who is 196cm and can run and jump and has got clean hands is going to be an X factor in any finals series," Podsiadly said.

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