A week before the finals, Geelong forward coach Blake Caracella suddenly has much more on his hands than fine-tuning the AFL's most potent attack.

James Podsiadly's two-week suspension means the Cats can experiment with how they set up inside their forward 50 on Saturday against West Coast, ahead of the qualifying final against St Kilda.

Ruck-forward Brad Ottens is among four inclusions for Geelong, but Caracella notes they have plenty of handy options.

"He's been fantastic for most of this year, Podsy ... he's been a remarkable player for us," Caracella said.

"It's a shame not to have him this week and next week, we'll have to do with something else.

"Now what that is, we're not too sure, obviously everyone expects Tom Hawkins ... to go forward and us to ruck Brad Ottens and Mark Blake.

"That's one option, but you never know what might present itself."

For example, Brownlow Medallist Gary Ablett has kicked a career-high 40 goals this season, while Caracella said Tom Lonergan or even Harry Taylor could go into attack if needed.

While Ablett has spent more time in attack this year, Caracella said his forwards win whatever role Geelong's best player fulfils.

"It's nice to have Gaz with the ball in his hands, kicking it inside the forward 50 too," he said.

"It kind-of makes it easy for the forward line.

"But we're lucky to have a great list of players and a great choice to select from."

Geelong will start the strongest of favourites against West Coast, who will finish the season bottom.

The Eagles' last win at Skilled Stadium was the outstanding second-half comeback in 2006.

It was a defining loss for the Cats that season and helped prompt a widespread review of the club.

Geelong fans are unlikely to suffer through that again on Saturday, but the Cats want to further refine their game after wins over the Western Bulldogs and Carlton.

"No doubt we want to play well, we want to make sure all our systems are working well and the players are implementing them as they should be," Caracella said.

"(We want) a good hitout before the finals.

"Different teams have different systems - to come up against a team that has probably a more similar system to St Kilda would have been beneficial.

"West Coast don't have that same method of play, so we'll try to implement our systems as best we can and practise those like we do each week.

"Nothing really changes, it's just the last (home and away) game of the year."

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