Just how do you drop two players from a team that is coming off a 135-point win on the road?
That was the dilemma facing Geelong coach Mark Thompson as the Cats flew to Adelaide on Thursday, ahead of Friday night's clash against the Crows at AAMI Stadium.
The Cats will welcome back champion defender Matthew Scarlett from a hamstring injury and goalsneak Mathew Stokes - who was a late withdrawal with a knee injury from the rout of West Coast at Subiaco - with both players part of a 24-man squad.
With both players certain starters against the Crows, that means two players must somehow be cut from the team that handed West Coast its greatest loss on home soil.
"Matthew Scarlett picks himself and so does Mathew Stokes so unfortunately we have to work out who goes out of the team," Thompson said at Melbourne Airport on Thursday.
"We are going to take 24 players over there and we will just work out the team when we get there."
The reigning premier is in fantastic shape injury-wise as it prepares to step up its bid for successive flags, with long-term absentee Matthew Egan and rover Shannon Byrnes, who is expected to resume next week, their only casualties.
Thompson said Scarlett's two-match absence with a minor hamstring strain had actually benefited both the Cats' No.1 defender and the team.
"It was good for the team to play without him and know they can play good football without him," Thompson said of Scarlett's rare absence in recent weeks.
"And when you miss a couple of games at his age (29), you certainly get your appetite back for football and he should have a good run in now (to the finals)."
"He only had a minor hamstring injury and we could have played him against West Coat but we didn't so he has three weeks off now so he should be fine."
And while the all-conquering Cats have won 31 of their past 33 matches and have more than corrected their previously poor interstate record by having won their past three games at AAMI Stadium, their past two at the Gabba and their past four at Subiaco, Thompson is always wary of taking on the Crows in front of their adoring fans at West Lakes.
The Cats won their last meeting against the Crows in Adelaide by just seven points last year and Thompson is expecting another tight encounter this time despite his team's recent dominant form.
"They are a really disciplined team and they have played really competitive football this year," he said of the Crows.
"Unfortunately for them they have lost the last two but the Hawthorn game (the Crows' last home game when they went down by just four points) was a beauty and this is going to be a really tough game."