Injury ravaged Wests Tigers have been dealt another blow after centre Geoff Daniela was ruled out on the eve of Friday's clash against the Titans at Skilled Park.
Daniela, who was set to return to the top grade for the injured Chris Lawrence (broken jaw), is yet to recover from a knock suffered while playing for Wests in the NSW Cup last weekend.
The New Zealand born centre joins full-back Wade McKinnon (hamstring), prop Bryce Gibbs (knee), lock Liam Fulton (calf), prop John Skandalis (buttock) and Lawrence in a crowded Tigers casualty ward.
While coach Tim Sheens is yet to confirm his line-up, he revealed he is likely to turn to Balmain Ryde Eastwood full-back Sean Meaney, with utility Mitch Brown to start at left centre.
Meaney, 23, boasts three minutes of NRL experience having made his debut against Canterbury-Bankstown back in Round 13.
"Right at the moment Sean Meaney might be looked at at full-back ... and I may keep (Mitch) Brown in the centres, but I'll just wait and see as to whether or not that works out for me," a preoccupied Sheens said on Thursday.
Reminded of his recent comments that the Tigers can't win a premiership without specialist full-back McKinnon, who is no certainty to return for Week 1 of the finals, Sheens admits he's not yet sure what impact McKinnon's absence will have on the side's title hopes.
"Time will tell but young blokes stand up and I may give young Sean the run," he said.
"I've got experienced players there in (Daniel) Fitzhenry and Beau Ryan who have played that position."
"But Sean's a specialist, he represented NSW residents this year and played well and has played very well in the Balmain side which has done very well, so I'm looking to maybe give him a start."
Asked how many of his injured players he expects to return to the field in time for the first week of the finals, Sheens replied: "We just have to wait and see but I'm hopeful two or three of them will be back but we're not expecting to see a whole host back, we have got a few problems."
With the odds already stacked against his men heading into the Round 26 clash, Sheens made it clear he's not expecting any favours from the referees in front of a parochial Titans home crowd.
"Well it's their home game so we won't win the penalty count," he quipped.
"They've won most of them up there. The crowd will be on our back the same way we were on their back when they were down here, so it's going to be a tough game. They play an open style of game but in saying that their forwards work hard."
Skipper Robbie Farah agreed defeating the Titans at home is a tall order but stressed the importance of taking some momentum into the finals series.
"For them a home semi-final's on the line so they're going to throw everything at us," Farah said.
"They've got a lot of quality across the park. Greg Bird's back in form and Mat Rogers has been playing great at five-eighth, so we've just got to worry about ourselves and if we keep playing like we have been we'll be a fair shot."
"I think over the last few weeks we've made some good steps forward so it'd be a shame to