Western Bulldogs defender Matt Suckling is not guaranteed to return to the side for Saturday's grand final, even if he's declared fully fit.
His non-selection for last week's preliminary final against Greater Western Sydney came as a shock, with team sheets stating he was missing with an Achilles injury.
But the Bulldogs' director of football Chris Grant confirmed that Suckling going out of the side was more than just Achilles soreness, but also to do with team balance.
"It's sort of a combination of all of that," Grant said at the Whitten Oval on Wednesday.
"Matt's been obviously a pretty important player for us, but certainly the GWS set-up with three talls gave us an opportunity of doing something different.
"We may have to do something different this week just because of the nature of Sydney's team."
Suckling will have had to pull up fresh from the team's training session on Tuesday, and then train fully at the main session on Thursday before being declared fully fit.
If he is, it will then be up to the selection committee to decide whether he or Fletcher Roberts plays in the grand final against the Swans.
While Roberts was utilised as a third tall to tackle the Giants' tall timber last week, he's regarded at the Bulldogs as being deceptively quick, and coaching staff regard him as more than capable of playing on a small forward.
If he is selected, Suckling will play in his fourth grand final.
He played in the 2012 loss to Sydney, missed all of 2013 with a knee injury and played in both the 2014 and 2015 triumphs.
The other selection dilemma for the Bulldogs lies with midfielder Lin Jong, who was best on ground in the club's VFL win last weekend.
Jong broke his collarbone in the team's elimination final against West Coast and has made a staggering recovery to return less than two-and-a-half weeks later.
"Look, it's a nice problem to have when you've got a large amount of players that you can choose from," Grant said.
"And Matt [Suckling] and Jongy and Fletcher are all in the mix to be part of it, so that's great."
Ruckman Jordan Roughead will play barring any serious mishap, after suffering a bleed in the eye when a ball was kicked into him during the win over the Giants.
Tom Campbell is first in line ahead of Will Minson to replace him if something happens, but the Bulldogs remain very confident that Roughead will be declared fit to play after Thursday's main training session.
