"That's not a great mentality to have, but it's do or die now, so we don't have a choice," said Bulldogs forward Josh Jackson. "It's a bit of a fresh start, everyone is on a level playing field in the back four of the eight. It's do or die, if we don't [lift] that's it for the year."

Canterbury come into the finals on the back of three straight losses. Their opponents, Penrith, have won seven of their last eight. If the Bulldogs are to generate any momentum, it will be done from a standing start. History shows the "family club" is more than capable. In 2014, they lost their last regular-season game against the Gold Coast Titans and needed other results to go their way just to make the eight. A month later, they were contesting the grand final.

In a bid to do so again, the Bulldogs have taken steps to address the negativity that has crept into the camp during their winless run.

"We have spoken about staying positive," Jackson said. "It's obviously not exactly where we wanted to be at this time of the year, but it is what it is. We can't change that now, we've just got to take the lessons from the mistakes we've made and turn that around. We've tried to do it the last month or so but it hasn't worked for us. We've just got to acknowledge it happened and moved forward," he said.

John Novak, head of mind management at the Bulldogs, has played a role in shifting thinking. However, Jackson said the players, particularly the more experienced ones, were behind an attitude adjustment.

"I think we were focusing on the negatives too much," Jackson said. "We were doing the same thing every week and saying we need to fix these areas. There was a fair bit too much focus being placed on the negative parts of our game where we need to focus on some of the positives, some of the things we're doing well.

"Going forward, we need to use that to the best of our ability. It's been good, the start of the week has been good and hopefully we can take that into the game."

The Bulldogs will be without Will Hopoate, who has stuck to his decision not to play on Sunday due to his religious beliefs, despite the raising of the stakes.

"I really respect Will, he's a great guy," Jackson said.

"I respect whatever choice he makes, and all the other boys are behind him 100 per cent."

Jackson will be a leading contender for the Brad Fittler Medal, awarded to NSW's most outstanding player during the Origin series, when it is presented on Monday. However, his sole focus is on the Panthers.

"We have to win the battle of the middle early, control their go-forward and their back five, they do a really good job for them starting off their sets," Jackson said. "Then the big forwards come off the back of that. The start is going to be crucial to us."