Witnish had been one of the Tigers’ best players in the first three quarters of the clash with the Dragons before he hurt his knee.

In better news for the Tigers, coach Luke Beattie has declared star forward Ben Weightman a certain starter for Sunday’s elimination final clash with Eaglehawk.

“Witnish ‘s injury is really disappointing for him and the club,’’ Beattie said.

“He’s been a fantastic part of the re-build this season. He’s had some other injury problems in the past few weeks as well, but overall he’s been a good player for us.

“It’s a shame for him that he misses the finals, but we’ve shown as a group this year that we can overcome injuries. We haven’t had a game all year with our full team and we’ve managed to get some great outcomes.”

Weightman’s availability is crucial for the Tigers.

The classy forward is averaging three goals per game this season and hasn’t been kept goalless in all of his 14 games. He played the first half of last Saturday’s game against Sandhurst before sitting out the second half.

“Ben tightened up in the hamstring and we wanted to make sure there was no longer term issue,’’ Beattie said.

“He could have come back on the ground, but we had to weigh up what was best for the club going forward.

“Considering we weren’t guaranteed of playing finals at that time….it was a 50-50 decision. In hindsight we made the right decision and we move on.”

Beattie said Darcy Kelly (back) and Darren Chambers (hamstring) should be available for selection.

“Leighton Chisholm played for the Pioneers last week and he’s another one that will be thrown up for selection. We have great depth through our list. We won’t necessarily pick the 22 best players, we’ll look at which combination of 22 players is going to give us the best chance to beat Eaglehawk.”