The painful memories of three grand final defeats is the key motivating factor for Bulldogs winger Sam Perrett who says he would "probably faint" if his lifelong dream of winning a premiership became a reality.

Perrett tasted grand final defeat in the 2010 decider against St George Illawarra while playing for the Roosters and after jumping ship to the Bulldogs halfway through 2012, he suffered another loss that year and one in the 2014 decider.

Of all people, Perrett knows how rare grand finals can be and he says a part of him burns inside when he sees players take them for granted. "You see some of these boys who come in in their debut year and they get these titles," Perrett said.

"They haven't experienced a long career and they can't see just how much some people hurt to try and get it. Ever since I played first grade football, I've always wanted to win a competition ... it's a lifelong goal. I've been there three times now and still haven't got the prize, so it's a massive thing.

"Every opportunity is really precious so you've got to make the most of it."

Perrett gets out of bed and drives to training with no other intention than to win a competition. Even though critics have written the Bulldogs off after their unconvincing one-point win against the Dragons last weekend, Perrett is doing everything in his power to steer Canterbury to back-to-back grand finals.

"The first time I went there, I was like: 'Oh this is exciting'," Perrett said of the 2010 grand final. "The second one it was like: 'All right, we're going to get this' and it was just heartbreak the third time. I was sure it was going to happen and so to have gone through that, the fire's burning a bit brighter. I think I'd probably faint if we win."

Meanwhile, front-rower Aiden Tolman is a little unsure why his team is such an underdog heading into the do-or-die clash. "We've won our last five games, I don't know what the critics can base that on," Tolman said. "That's their opinion and they're allowed to have it. If we can take that same attitude and mentality into the game, I'm sure it's going to go a long way to winning."

There is a lot of hype around the battle of the monster forward packs, but for Perrett, he knows it won't be an easy task defending the left edge combination of Michael Jennings and Daniel Tupou, who will be aiming to not let the hard work of a third consecutive minor premiership come undone.

If Bulldogs are to knock off the Roosters, Perrett said they needed to get back to their fundamentals – holding onto the ball.  "They'll have that extra motivation to put in a good one and get that win back," he said. "I'm sure they've got a lot to prove to themselves. I'm more focused on us and what we need to do.

"I don't know if you'd call it technical, but one thing [that needs improving] is holding the ball. It just puts too much pressure on ourselves when we give it away and we end up defending for three sets on our line. Against these teams coming up, we won't be able to afford it."