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Bulldogs brush off talk about needing to lose
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...alk-about-needing-to-lose-20120822-24ms7.htmlCANTERBURY players are adamant they are not scared of flying in the face of popular opinion that says they would be better off losing a game going into the finals.
The competition-leading Bulldogs have won 12 matches in a row and have games against Canberra away tomorrow night and Sydney Roosters at ANZ Stadium on Saturday week leading into the finals.
If they were to win both of those and then win again in the first week of the finals, giving them the second weekend off, they would have to complete a run of 17 straight wins - ending with the grand final - to take out the premiership.
The more the Bulldogs keep winning, the more their streak will be highlighted in the media and by the public, putting increased pressure on them to keep it going. Many analysts say that pressure would disappear if Canterbury lost a game soon, but the players say it's not an issue.
Asked about the suggestion that the Bulldogs need to lose a game to enable them to refocus going into the finals, centre Josh Morris replied: ''No, we don't buy into that. You can't go into a game thinking you're going to lose.
''We prepare differently each week for the side we're coming up against, and Des [Hasler, the Canterbury coach] makes sure that by game time we're fully switched on and prepared for the battle for that week.''
Morris said it wouldn't bother the Bulldogs if they went into the finals on a 14-game winning streak, but that it might bother their opponents.
''It would probably give sides that little bit of doubt, thinking we've got a bit of confidence going into the finals,'' he said. ''The more wins you can build up, it worries the other teams a bit.''
Canterbury's other centre, Krisnan Inu, was similarly dismissive of talk the Bulldogs would be better off losing one, and said that a near-loss was as good as a defeat when it came to forcing teams to address any elements of their play that needed addressing.
Inu said Canterbury's 23-22 win over Wests Tigers last weekend, and their 22-14 win over Brisbane the week before, after trailing 14-0, had done that.
''I don't think you have to lose to learn a lesson,'' Inu said. ''I think we've learnt our lesson from the past few weeks. We know we're not a perfect side - no team is - and that we've got things we need to fix or improve. We're doing that at every training session. We scraped through last week's game against the Tigers. It could have gone either way and we were grateful to come away with the win. We're not focused on winning streaks. We're just happy to come away with a win.
''If it adds to a winning streak we're not thinking about that or how long it might go, or breaking records or anything. We're just worrying about the week to week of playing. The finals series is a whole new competition anyway. There's no leader - everyone starts off on zero points.''
