The Cats fielded 13 premiership players against the Lions and Sanderson expects several more to return against Richmond this week.
"We’re pretty much done with rotations now,” Sanderson said.
"Obviously we’re coming off a shortened pre-season and tonight we didn’t have (Cameron) Mooney, (Cameron) Ling and (Darren) Milburn – they should all play next week.
"Matthew Scarlett should play as well and (Gary) Ablett should also be close.
"Ideally we wanted to be full-strength for our last two practice matches but we needed to give a spell to Mooney and we needed to give a spell to Ling.”
Two premiership stars who may still be in doubt are Max Rooke and Mathew Stokes.
Rooke missed the Lions clash with tightness which Sanderson would not elaborate on, other than to say it wasn’t in his problematic hamstrings.
Stokes, meanwhile, was stretchered off in the last quarter on Friday night with a head injury.
"If it was any other game it, if was round one or a final, he would have played for sure – but with his history of soft tissues, we didn’t feel the need to risk him,” Sanderson said of Rooke.
"(Stokes) is fine. He’s got a sore head and can’t remember the incident but the important thing is he’s up and walking around the changerooms.
"Normally when a bloke gets hit like that you don’t risk them the next week, but he’s a tough kid. He’s been hit in the head a few times and he always seems to come back fine.”
Sanderson was delighted by the display of some of the Cats’ ‘second-stringers’, particularly Ryan Gamble, who booted five goals.
"The important thing for us is that players are in great form who weren’t part of our premiership success,” he said.
"Gamble, (Tom) Hawkins, (Trent) West, (Kane) Tenace and Dave Johnson all put their hands up for selection for round one.
"It’s a great position for us to be in with players who aren’t normally walk-up starters really pushing their names forward tonight.”
