With two regular season rounds to go Bulldogs are guaranteed a finals spot, but that’s just one piece of the puzzle for coach Nathan Pearce.

He wants his men to give themselves the best chance possible of being there on grand final day, and wants to make sure his side plays as many lead up game on home turf as possible.

In order to do that, Bulldogs need to rise from fourth to second.

That will require beating third-placed Forbes in Forbes this Saturday, the Platypi sitting one point ahead of the Bathurst outfit.

Given the second-placed Dubbo Kangaroos are also just one point ahead of Bulldogs and will battle undefeated Orange Emus the same afternoon, a reshuffle is very possible.

“This could derail our season really badly, there’s no doubt about that. If we don’t win this one, it will be pretty hard to come back psychologically,” Pearce admitted.

“There were certainly no second chances for us last year and we fell one game short of a grand final and it could have easily gone our way. We’ve done it before last year and we know we can do it, but we need to put the stake in the ground and this is the week we will move forward from.

“If we get in that top two we are a chance of a home ground final and wouldn’t that be lovely?

“The other thing we’ve spoke about is that if we grab two of these games this weekend, we win the club championship a week out, so there’s a fair bit to play for.”

It was Forbes who ended Bulldogs’ premierships hopes last season, posting an 18-9 win in the preliminary final, while the Platypi were the first side this season to beat Bathurst. That was a 27-17 victory in round eight.

Trying to reverse that result on Forbes’ home soil will not be easy, so Pearce will be stressing to his players that they must be focused for the full 80 minutes.

“We’ve got to remind them what’s a stake and remind them we’re not going to do it with a half-paced game, we are absolutely going to have to be at our best,” he said.

Pearce and his coaching staff were faced with what he called “some really awkward selections” for Saturday’s match given Adam Plummer is the only unavailability.

“In our front row we’ve just dropped Joel Harper who’s been, without a shadow of a doubt, one of our best players this year,” Pearce said.

“Chris Plunkett, who’s recently been the [NSW] Country loosehead could barely get past him, so it’s a testament to the work the guys are doing and the depth we’ve got that someone who has been playing the quality of football Joel has is missing out.

“Dylan Carter as well, who has played pretty much every game in first grade, he’s been relegated.”

Kick-off in Forbes is at 3.15pm.