Canterbury will harness the "us against the world" mentality of the Bulldogs' storied past as they fight to keep their present NRL season from imploding.
But while Cameron Ciraldo concedes last year's semi-finalists have their backs against the wall, the coach will not tell his players their finals hopes are on the line against Parramatta on Monday.
As of Thursday, the 14th-placed Bulldogs were still uncertain whether State of Origin hopefuls Jacob Kiraz (calf) and Stephen Crichton (shoulder) would face the Eels.
Ciraldo revealed Kiraz played last week's 22-16 loss to Wests Tigers with a calf strain suffered in the warm-up and is considered a 50-50 chance of lining up on Monday.
The star outside back only recovered from his knee injury two weeks ago and was unable to train on Thursday.
