The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are looking backwards to motivate themselves moving forward.
With just two weeks of the regular season remaining, the Bulldogs are trying to pull out all the stops to prevent a repeat of last year’s finals showing when Newcastle eliminated them in the first week with a 22-6 shellacking.
With two consecutive wins over the Parramatta and the Tigers after losing the month prior, the Bulldogs have finally settled in the top eight but this isn't enough for veteran fullback Sam Perrett who believes the top four should be the goal over the final two rounds of the regular year.
"It hasn't been really spoken about but I have been thinking about it. It is an awesome advantage to be in the top four and getting that home crowd advantage eventually would be a huge positive for us," Perrett said.
"Last season was really disappointing and we know at the end of the day that came down to our own performance.
"All we can do really is win and hopefully everything else works out in terms of the results of the other games."
Bulldogs halfback Trent Hodkinson buys into Perrett's hopes of a top four berth by claiming he has noticed a significant shift in momentum since the club returned to winning ways a fortnight ago.
"Ever since we beat Parramatta you could feel it turning. I just knew we needed that one win to kick-start the backend of our season and we definitely turned it around," Hodkinson said.
"Although last week against the Tigers we took our foot off the pedal in the second half... we have two wins in a row now and we need another on Thursday and win the game after that and push for that top four spot.
"[If we make the top four then] you have a safety net if you lose a game. It is very important no matter what. You want to get up there and finish in the top four and we need to win our remaining games to give us a chance."
Since helping New South Wales win their first series in eight years, Hodkinson is still looking to return to peak form and insists that he isn't far off from returning to his "A game".
"I'm getting there slowly," Hodkinson said. "We all had a hiccup over those four weeks but I'm still going alright and each week I'm improving as we get closer to the finals."
