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BELL Park co-coach Ben Armstrong remains both positive and excited about his side's lead-up to the finals despite the Dragons suffering a number of injuries in Saturday's 48-point loss to Colac.
The Dragons weren't overly worried about the loss to Colac, but the growing injury list is a different story.
"We're pretty positive about where we are going. We're gearing up for finals and are excited about that," Armstrong said.
"You never want to have injuries so it is definitely not ideal, but we've been pretty lucky so far this year and you always get your turn, so hopefully we come out of it pretty unscathed."
Among the casualties for Bell Park was co-coach Tim Sheringham who left the field late in the game after hurting his knee in a contest, while star forward Stephen Paulke came off with a "foot problem".
The biggest injury though for the Dragons was to Cameron Green who was stretchered from the ground in the second quarter with what could potentially be a season-ending knee injury
"Tim just copped a knock on the knee late in the game and could have gone back on but we just wanted the game to be over at that stage and Stephen had a foot problem and we didn't want to risk him," he said.
"Obviously we are pretty concerned for Cameron, he is a great man and a real Bell Park lifeblood boy, we are really concerned for him and praying that he can get through.
"Cameron has been in really good form through the midfield for us, so he'll get an MRI and have a look."
With the Dragons having cemented a top-two spot heading into the game Armstrong made it no secret that players had been rested for the match and also in recent weeks.
Armstrong described it as a luxury for the club to be able to do that, but wasn't blaming Saturday's loss on the decision.
"We had a couple of blokes who were pretty sore and have some outstanding seasons and have had a fair work rate," he said.
"Over the past three weeks we have had some guys that have been able to take the week off.
"We've done well enough to set ourselves up to do that.
"But we had a really good team out there against Colac and it was probably more what happened on the day that hurt us than the blokes we had out."
Bell Park takes on St Albans in the final round of the home-and-away season this weekend, before beginning its finals campaign the following week.
Armstrong is confident the hitout against the in-form Colac will help his side's preparation leading into finals.
"We came into the game and thought it was a really good opportunity to play against a side that is absolutely up and about and on a big ground and a really nice surface," he said.
"Essentially we have two weeks and we play Grovedale in a second semi final. "We play against St Albans next week and we'll bring a few back in for that and hopefully get our form up to play in the final at Geelong West."
