Four back to boost Dragons

BELL Park could welcome up to four players back from injury as the club fights for its season in Sunday’s GFL do-ordie semi-final against Colac.

The Dragons have been left to lick their wounds an 87point thrashing by St Mary’s in which co-coach Luke Rayner questioned the mental application of his players.

Superstar Jackson Sheringham must overcome calf tightness to make himself available for Colac, while Jarrod Love, Harry Smith and Mitch Cuthill also missed Saturday’s qualifying final.

Ben Johnson looks to have survived an injury scare, however, after it was feared he had reinjured his medial ligament.

“It sounds like more of a pinched nerve type of scenario, not the actual medial,” Rayner said.

“We do recovery tonight and treatment, so we’ll probably find out a bit more then. But I’m reasonably confident he’ll be fine.

“Fingers crossed, but at this stage I don’t have got medical update — we should know more after tonight.”

Rayner said he hoped his side would be strengthened with the returns of Sheringham, Love, Smith and Cuthill.

“He just had some calf tightness in the last round when we played Colac — it was still tight for him towards the back end of last week, so we obviously decided not to take the risk with him,” he said of Sheringham.

“Jarrod Love had an AC knock in that Colac game as well, so he should be fine and fit.

“Harry Smith had an appendix out, which is a couple of weeks tomorrow. He was very, very close to playing. He should be fine for this week.

“Mitch Cuthill’s knee just blew up a little bit after the Round 18 game against Colac as well.

“Again, he was close to playing but we just decided to let it settle down a little bit further.”

The Dragons prevailed by 28 points when they last met the Tigers in Round 18.