CHRIS Fagan is not concerned who Collingwood selects in its 23 for Friday night, saying the Lions have their own "dilemma" ahead of the season-shaping match at the MCG.
With their spot in wildcard weekend locked away, speculation has arisen that the Magpies could rest some of their stars, including Brownlow Medal favourite Nick Daicos, to preserve them for the following week.
In contrast, Brisbane will be doing no such thing, needing to win to guarantee its position in the top four and earn the double chance in September.
Speaking on Tuesday morning, Fagan said he didn't know what to expect from the Magpies, and it didn't really bother him.
"From our perspective, we don't want to get caught up in who they may or may not play. It's not our issue, it's their issue," Fagan said.
"We openly discussed that yesterday that that's going to be the issue of this week.
"It started a couple of weeks ago with Collingwood when it sort of became apparent that maybe they wouldn't be able to change their fortunes in the last round of the season, so they might rest a few players.
"We've got a mature group of players, and generally speaking, like most weeks, we focus on what we need to do rather than what the opposition might be trying to do or who they might play.
"We're turning up with our best available team, and we're trying to win the game, and that's all we need to focus on, and not get caught up in all the debate about what may or may not happen."
With co-captain Hugh McCluggage still unavailable as he deals with a calf injury, one selection question in that best available team surrounds young defender Ty Gallop.
Gallop has now served his three-match suspension for an incident with Mitch Georgiades and is available for selection.
Fagan and his match committee must decide whether the 20-year-old resumes his place as a key defender at the expense of either Darcy Gardiner or Ryan Lester or simply misses out.
"I don't know. We might spend two hours on this this afternoon," he said.
"Our dilemma is that our reserves (VFL) team has finished now, and so there's nowhere for him to get a game.
"So yeah, it'll be on our agenda, and he's a chance to play, but we're not 100 per cent sold on that either.
"I'm not worried about his fitness because he'll work his backside off if he's not playing a game of footy. The thing that's hard to replicate is match practice."
