GEELONG forward Mathew Stokes admits he knew the odds of a recall were stacked against him after watching his teammates dismantle Collingwood in last week's preliminary final.

Stokes will miss Saturday's Toyota AFL Grand Final after the Cats named an unchanged line-up for the clash with St Kilda.

The 24-year-old had voluntarily pulled out of the preliminary final side with groin soreness, but said that being on the outer had still made the news difficult to digest.

"[I'm] pretty devastated but someone had to miss out and the boys played well last week, so I didn't really expect to come back in," he said from Skilled Stadium on Thursday evening.

"You move on, that's life and there's nothing I can do about it now. I just have to support the boys.

"I've moved on from the fact I'm not playing and I've dealt with it and I'm quite happy with the decision because I knew the consequences of me not playing in the prelim final."

Stokes was at the club reading NT News online when coach Mark Thompson tapped him on the shoulder and told him he would not be selected.

He reiterated that his decision to withdraw from the side to play the Magpies was made after learning a valuable lesson in last year's ill-fated finals series.

Stokes played in the grand final loss to Hawthorn but was severely hampered by a groin injury and gathered just seven touches.

"To be honest, the whole reason I didn't play last week was because of last year and letting the boys down," he said.

"I played two games I shouldn't have when my groins weren't strong enough and I shouldn't have played, but I still did. I let my pride get in the way and this year I didn't want to make the same mistake so I pulled out."

Stokes revealed he suffered a minor groin strain in the second quarter of the qualifying final against the Bulldogs, and from that point on knew his September campaign was in jeopardy.

"Last year Bomber (Thompson) showed his support and backed me in and I let the boys down," he said.

"I didn't want it to happen again. It took me a long time to get over last year.

"But this is a new year and hopefully we can win and that's all I really care about."

Despite his predicament, Stokes joked that his last chance to get back into the team was to kick a teammate in the calf at Friday's training session or raid one of their hotel rooms.

He said a cuddle from football operations manager Neil Balme was both comforting and scary while words from match committee member Steve Hocking and assistant coach Ken Hinkley had helped ease the pain.

"As soon as I left the club today I just wanted to be by myself," he said.

"I just wanted to get away [to] clear my head and move on, I guess."

Stokes was a member of Geelong's 2007 premiership side.