St Kilda football manager Greg Hutchison admits rugged tagger Steven Baker has done everything possible in his efforts to earn a recall for Saturday's AFL preliminary final against the Western Bulldogs.

But will it be enough?

Or will the nine weeks Baker spent on the sidelines after being suspended for striking Geelong forward Steve Johnson back in July make him too big a risk?

Baker was initially included in the side for the qualifying final victory over the Cats in early September, only to be a late withdrawal due to a toe injury.

Two weeks further down the track, it's now or never for the Saints stalwart who must get through two more training sessions before the team is named on Thursday.

"We'll have a look at selection tomorrow and then a final decision will be made post training," Hutchison said.

"He's done everything he possibly can. He had a really good session and did a little bit extra on Saturday so he's certainly in consideration.

"He'll be available for selection, but what happens at selection, well, really no-one's going to know until we get to that stage."

St Kilda onballer Lenny Hayes said the club used their weekend off to put the players through a match-like program on Saturday with recovery on Sunday.

"It was about an hour session and in that there was a little bit of match simulation stuff and we worked on a few things," Hayes said.

"It was one of the tougher training sessions that you would do throughout the year because normally we would only do a 30 or 40 minute session.

"We tried to replicate a game and a few of the drills and it was pretty taxing. There was a little bit of physical contact stuff but I think everyone pulled up really well."

Hayes said that having the weekend off was not a negative for the team's plan.

"We went through the same thing last year and we've just always focused on preparation," Hayes said.

"It's a little bit weird when you don't know who you're going to be playing the next week but after the Bulldogs game we can really focus in on them."

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