Dally M medal winner Todd Carney's best hope for a debut Test jumper appears to be a bench spot in Saturday night's Four Nations dead rubber against New Zealand.

Australian coach Tim Sheens has indicated he will give his first choice playmakers another run against the Kiwis at Eden Park in a dress rehearsal for the tournament final a week later in Brisbane.

Though Sheens has done his best to ensure his players have their minds on the job for the dead rubber by declaring positions are still up for grabs.

Sheens indicated he would stick with his pre-tournament plan to give all 24 players in his squad a run, but the spine of fullback Billy Slater, hooker Cameron Smith and halves Darren Lockyer and Cooper Cronk would all play this weekend.

"Lockyer and Cooper are still not quite getting it right - unless there's a problem, the spine will definitely start," Sheens said.

"Cooper and Locky have only played that one game (the May Test) this year and again last week it was not conducive to getting the seven and six thing happening."

That means the likes of Carney and Wests Tigers hooker Robbie Farah will probably have to settle for a spot on the bench, while St George Illawarra's Clive Churchill medallist Darius Boyd will likely get a run on the wing.

Of the other four players yet to play in the tournament, centre Chris Lawrence is set to get a run at the expense of either Willie Tonga or Brent Tate, while Greg Bird shapes as an ideal replacement for the injured Luke Lewis in the second row, despite Lewis saying he was keen to play.

That would leave Dean Young and Matt Scott to come off the bench, but that too presents its own problems for Sheens, leaving him with an interchange rotation featuring two playmakers, a backrower and just one prop against what is likely to be a big Kiwi pack.

"I'll probably give everyone some sort of a run - whether or not it's straight up or off the bench it's tough to say," Sheens said.

"It's not going to be radical changes - I'm going to tinker with a number of things in the forwards.

"I'm having a look at all options ... it gives the boys who played (Sunday night) and last week plus the boys next week a chance to say 'okay, now I can assess (everyone)'.

"I don't want to change the playmakers to any great degree but the younger playmakers need to get a little bit of time."

The Australians held a recovery session in Melbourne on Monday morning with Lewis showing little effects of the calf injury which forced him from the field midway through the second half of Sunday night's win over England.

The squad travelled to Auckland later on Monday, with several players in the squad running for the Rugby League International Federation player of the year awards to be held there on Wednesday night.

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