Cameron Ciraldo insists Canterbury's poor record against fellow top-eight sides does not reflect their potential to impact the NRL finals series.
Lose to North Queensland on Saturday and the Bulldogs will finish the regular season with the equal-worst winning percentage against current top-eight sides of any team that began round 27 in the top eight.
A defeat at Accor Stadium would push the Bulldogs' record to 3-7 for the stat, the same produced by this season's Sydney Roosters.
The Bulldogs' three wins so far have come against the eighth-placed Dolphins, Cronulla - in golden point - and the Roosters, whose winger Dom Young was sent off after only 26 minutes.
But since the start of July, resurgent Canterbury have only played three of the current top eight and haven't had the chance to face Penrith or Melbourne since before Magic Round.
Hoping to avoid a repeat of last week's decisive loss to finals-bound Manly, Ciraldo shrugged at the statistic.
"A few of our losses early in the year against those top sides were as we were probably learning our style of play, learning how to play, get combinations that hadn't played together before," the coach said.
"We definitely learned some lessons earlier in the year and over the last six weeks, we've gotten a lot of confidence about what really works for us.
"I think we're going to be in a really good position once that (the finals) starts. But we're not looking too far ahead, we need to make sure we're focused on tomorrow night."
The winner of the Bulldogs and Cowboys will lock up a home elimination final and leave the loser only able to secure their own hosting rights if the Sharks beat Manly on Sunday.
Ciraldo has been buoyed by his side's renewed vigour without the football after a defensive performance against Manly he rated as the Bulldogs' most disappointing of the year.
"(I've seen) a bit more energy and focus on it (defence) in training. We were probably a little bit guilty of talking too much attack over the last couple of weeks," he said.
"We've reminded ourselves of who we are and what we're good at and what we want to build our game on."
The Bulldogs broke from routine and took Tuesday's training session to Allianz Stadium, where they could face the Sharks or Roosters in week two of the finals
Canterbury have not played at the Moore Park venue since it reopened in 2022 but Ciraldo denied the change of scenery was intended to prepare his side for the play-offs.
"I haven't thought of that, to be honest," he said.
"We've been training here (Belmore Sportsground) for nine months now so we were just looking to break it up a little bit and have a few different distractions."