The Canterbury Bulldogs have finally found their mojo.
It hasn't been overly pretty, but Cameron Ciraldo's much maligned side have quietly picked up five wins from their last six starts.
Up until last week's clash against the New Zealand Warriors, you could have made the argument that the games they won weren't exactly against title contenders.
Following that dismal Round 13 loss at Parramatta to the Wests Tigers, the blue and white picked up the pieces with a two-point win over the Parramatta Eels, a one-point win over the Manly Sea Eagles and a good 18-point win over the Gold Coast Titans.
They came out of their final bye of the season only to let in 40 against the Canberra Raiders, but instead of letting the wheels fall off as they did earlier in the season, Ciraldo's side picked themselves up and beat the Tigers 32-0 in Round 20.
Again, not exactly a side who are challenging for the competition, but holding a clean sheet and scoring 32 points are points of promise for Canterbury.
It was their win against the Warriors last weekend - scrappy as it might have been to the tune of 18-6 - which makes you sit up and take notice.
It's not a dispute that the Warriors played their worst game of the season, but at some point, the trend line of good sides playing poorly against Canterbury can't just be a coincidence.
It has happened twice now. You stretch the mind back to early in the season, and questions were starting to be asked about whether the Penrith Panthers might be on track to go undefeated for the campaign, so far ahead of the competition were they.
But then they ran into the Bulldogs on a Thursday night and put in a diabolical performance, with Canterbury flipping their own early-season disaster class script to take a 32 points to 16 victory over the men from the foot of the mountains.
In both of those games, the Bulldogs attacked through their defence, unsettled a top team, and made them pay with their attack.
That is the formula for the Bulldogs, and while it doesn't work all the time in the modern game, there is no doubt they have found what works for them in recent weeks at both ends of the park, but particularly in attack.
The jury has been out on Lachlan Galvin all year, but his effort is one that can't be questioned.
He has suddenly been unlocked with the desperate coaching call to move Stephen Crichton into the halves, and while it's hard to argue they look like the sort of halves combination that are going to deliver a premiership, the overall performance of the team is on a far different level to what it was early in the campaign.
Leo Thompson has started to get into his work, the combination at dummy half is working well, and it would be remiss to not mention the returns of Jacob Preston and Viliame Kikau from injury in recent weeks.
What the win over the Warriors did last week is provide the club confidence that they can match it with the top teams in this competition. That they can get into the grind and go punch for punch, as they did last year.
There is no surprise that the gradual reduction in six-agains has improved the way Canterbury are playing their footy, but credit where it's due, they have also adapted throughout the season to the faster pace of the game, even if it has taken them longer than other clubs up the top of the ladder.
For all their form though, the Bulldogs still have a mountain to climb to make the finals.
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The ladder has them in ninth, just two points out of the top eight, but what that doesn't tell you is the Newcastle Knights and North Queensland Cowboys directly ahead of them, as well as the Manly Sea Eagles, Canberra Raiders and Melbourne Storm all behind them still have a bye up their sleeve.
That's a free two points for all those clubs.
The ladder also doesn't pain the picture of who plays who.
Things are about to get a whole lot tougher for the Bulldogs.
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Melbourne in Melbourne may not be what it once was, but it's still a tough road trip. The Sydney Roosters at the Sydney Football Stadium is a tough assignment, and games against the South Sydney Rabbitohs always throw up a curveball.
If the improved version of the St George Illawarra Dragons with their young forwards leading the way shows up, that won't be a walk in the park, before they finish the year against the Penrith Panthers and Brisbane Broncos.
The reality of the situation is that, with the exception of the Dragons and Broncos game, the Bulldogs play teams well and truly in the mix for the finals on the run home.
And somehow, they have to find a way to win probably another four of them, with current projections having the top eight mark at 32 points. Given their woeful for and against, even if it does finish with multiple teams on 30 points, they will likely miss out.
And what that means is that, with tough games on the horizon, the Storm actually looks one of the more winnable ones.
From a momentum and consistency point of view, Ciraldo's side need to back up their win over the Warriors last week, but even without that, time is running out.
This is as must-win as it gets for the Bulldogs.
Lose, and they are as good as done for 2026.
