The sixth-placed Cats, who sit equal with South Rovers (fifth) and Panmure (seventh) in the race for finals, will use the opportunity to play on a larger ground to test their gameplan before the run home.

"We want to be able to hold our structure and on the bigger grounds it will suit us," second-year coach Ben Price said of what he wanted from his side.

"We need to hold our structure and create options on the outside to be able to control the footy and carry the footy down the big ground."

The match against the Bombers is the first time Price's side will get the chance to play teams it has faced before.

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And after a tough past three weeks the Cats' mentor is eager to hit the back end of the season.

"We have played some good sides recently and haven't been able to get the win and we just need to keep sticking to our game structure," he said.

"The last time we played East we beat them by 70 points but I wasn't happy with what worked on that day.

"But this week, now we're back into the second round of games against teams who we have played before, we can look closely at last time we met and work on our deficiencies and grow from there."

Price made six changes at the selection table on Thursday night with Joby Baker, Reuben Gleeson, Dylan O'Keeffe, Beau Dignan, Joseph Meade and David Finnigan all returning.

Travis Membrey (concussion), Brendan Chatfield, Taylan Jones (unavailable), Brent Fedley (hamstring), Kye Bunworth (knee) and Patrick Higgins (hip flexor) are all out.

Membrey was rested with concussion symptoms still impacting the experienced Cat from the Nirranda game in round nine. Bunworth's knee strain is expected to see him out for four weeks.

Fedley, who is expected to miss two weeks, and Higgins will not miss more than two games of football.

Price said the personnel coming into his side were "like for like" with the exclusions.

East Warrnambool have four alterations to the team which beat Timboon Demons last time out.

Jacob Taylor and Matthew Kenny return to replace Andrew Ferguson and Jeremy Cook, who return to the club's reserves.

Bombers coach Danny Chatfield said he was pleased to have the pair back in the side for a tough encounter.

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