The versatile midfielder dislocated his elbow in the 23-point WDFNL win against Kolora-Noorat and will spend a long stint on the sidelines.

Harkness said he wasn't sure whether his experienced campaigner would play again this season.

"He's going to have a fair stint on the sidelines, he'll be in plaster for a little bit so we're not sure at this stage what that looks like long-term," he told The Standard.

"We may have him back for finals - we'll see how it goes. The great thing about John is he's naturally fit, always in really good nick so we'll give him every chance to hopefully come back and play a role in the finals."

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The Blues mentor said the group had the depth to cover his loss.

"We've got a great core group of mids who can step up - John's been our Mr Fix-it this season, he's played down back a bit too," he said.

"We were just starting to say how it was nice to pretty much have a full-strength side to choose from and then that happened.

"Ash Roslin is one who has come back from his own injury in the last few weeks and was in our best (on Saturday), so we'll probably have him more as a permanent mid and we've got another couple in there who probably play a lesser role in our side due to how balanced we are but we know we've got a lot of guys who would be starting midfielders in a lot of teams.

"We've got a bit of a luxury in that we've got a lot of guys who we can call on to step up and we're confident that they will."

The ladder leaders travel to take on Allansford on Saturday and Harkness said he was wary of the Cats.

"They're a really useful side, you know when those young sides get their tails up they can be tough to beat," he said. "In round three when we beat them we kicked 10 goals in the first quarter and we had that intention to start well, so you have to start well against young sides.

"We don't want to let them get a run on - if we can have a fast start and get on top early that's how we've beaten them in the past."

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