GEELONG coach Mark Thompson says match-ups, not sentiment, will be the guiding light for selection of the Cat's grand final team.

Forward Mathew Stokes withdrew from last weekend's preliminary final smashing of Collingwood and now faces the possibility of not regaining his spot in the side.

It is a scenario with which teammates Mark Blake and David Wojcinski can both empathise, having missed spots in the 2007 and 2008 grand final teams respectively.

While Thompson admitted the decision was a tough one, he was adamant that team selection would be ruled by the head and not the heart.

"It'll be a hard selection because Matthew Stokes does deserve to play – not that he's guaranteed to play," he said.

"If he does happen to come in, the guy that goes out probably deserves to play too.

"But we just have a responsibility to put the best team on the park that's going to beat St Kilda on Saturday.

"That's our responsibility so we might have to make a hard decision."

Thompson said fitness was not an issue for Stokes.

"It'll just be a discussion on match-ups and ultimately picking the best team to beat St Kilda; it won't be on training form or anything else.

"Mathew's fit to play, he's 100 per cent fit to play, there's no problems there.

"That's not the reason that's going to keep him out of the side."

Thompson offered a wry smile when discussing how the issue would have been sorted out in his time as a player at Windy Hill.

"Someone said before 'does it rely on training?'

"Well, it might if someone gets injured at training, then it looks after itself.

"We might have to come up with a drill that maybe injures someone – that's what we used to do in the '80s when I was playing at the Bombers."

Thompson said that despite Saints skipper Nick Riewoldt having an injured knee, no extra physical pressure would be brought to bear.

And he admitted the All-Australian captain would be tough to stop, noting the Bulldogs did well on him by playing in front and forcing the midfield to send the ball in high, but that they still couldn't stop him winning the game for his side.

"The outcome of that game was that (Dale) Morris played really well, and Riewoldt ended up kicking four and was a match-winner.

"He's a really good player.

"The way he played him seemed to work, but it might be something that Morris is suited to rather than Harry Taylor or (Andrew) Mackie.

"But we'll certainly have a deeper look at that than we probably already have with the individuals, and see which way they prefer to play him – which way they're capable of playing on Riewoldt, more to the point."