They may have the oldest roster still in the hunt for the 2015 title but the Butchers's over-30 brigade could prove their trump card in the pressure cooker of finals football.

The defending premiers take on Dapto in the minor semi-final at Dapto Showground in Saturday after scraping into fourth spot with a win over Collegians last week.

It would be kind to call their form patchy in recent weeks but a run through the Butchers line-up reveals a side brimming with big-game experience.

Captain-coach Luke Swain and 11-Test veteran Trent Waterhouse were both part of the Panthers NRL triumph in 2003.

Halves Brent Grose and Ty McCarthy were part of the club's 2012 and 2014 grand final victories alongside evergreen prop Aaron Beath, who also tasted premiership premiership success with the Butchers in 1999, 2005 and 2008.

Beath said the wealth of experience ensures the Butchers won't wilt under the pressure of sudden-death football.

"We've got a lot of experience and a lot of big-game players," Beath said.

"Trent Waterhouse has played State of Origin and for Australia, Swainy's had a long NRL career, Brent Grose has over 100 games [in the NRL] and in the Super League, so there's a lot of experience there.

"There's plenty of belief that if we get [to the grand final] we can give it a real shake.

"It takes three games to win it from here, so it's not a huge ask.

"We're itching to get through this week and have a crack at the other two but we've got to take it one game at a time

"I know it's an old cliche but we have to take it week by week because it's do-or-die for us."

The third versus fourth clash is balanced on a knife's edge with Dapto boasting the far better form heading into the clas,h including a comprehensive 26-16 victory over the Butchers in the penultimate round - their most complete performance of the season.

The Butchers returned to form against a depleted Collies outfit last week to qualify in fourth spot but will need to make a big step up in sudden-death football.

"We were pretty poor against [Dapto] two weeks ago but a lot of their tries came through us coughing up ball on tackle two and three," Beath said.

"We know we can't do that over the next three weeks.

"All along we've spoken about just holding the footy and completing. We knew once we did that we'd be a pretty fair side.

"It's been a bit of a waiting game for us for all the pieces of the jigsaw to come together but we played some good footy last week.

"We went 10 of 11 [completed] sets with the ball and we hadn't done that all year."