RUGBY LEAGUE
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Dragons halfback Benji Marshall says his side have put patchy form over the closing rounds of the competition firmly in the rear-vision mirror ahead of their elimination clash with the Bulldogs on Saturday.
The Dragons will enter the finals with four wins from their final 10 games after getting out of jail on a golden-point thriller against the Tigers last week.
The performance, in which they conceded 22 points in the final 16 minutes, followed an away loss to the Titans and a scratchy 19-12 win over the Panthers in their previous two matches.
The Dragons will, however, be one of just five teams coming into the finals on the back of a victory with Souths, Brisbane and Cronulla all suffering final-round losses.
The Bulldogs only narrowly avoided defeat a lacklustre display against the 13th placed Warriors with a last gasp covering tackle from Josh Jackson on a runaway Solomone Kata sealing a 26-22 victory.
The mixed results have prompted Marshall to put a line under all teams' regular-season form ahead of week one.
"Everything that happens up to this point is irrelevant," Marshall said.
"I'm happy people are saying where just making up the numbers.
"What that does is take all the pressure and expectation off us and puts it back on them.
"I've played in big games where we've been underdogs and won.
"The best advice I've given the boys is to put in the two best 40-minute performances of your life. Then no one's talking about the last few weeks of the comp and you're into the second week of the finals."
After a tooth-and-nail fight just to reach the sudden death matches, Marshall said a significant weight has already been lifted.
"Just knowing we're in top eight this week has created a lot of relief and a lot of confidence," Marshall said.
"The pressure of not making the semi-finals since 2011 has had an effect but now that we've made it it's been a completely different feeling to the last six weeks.
"Now it just comes down to one 80-minute performance to decide whether you carry on or you bow out.
"When we weren't guaranteed a place in the top eight we got a little bit nervous and our performances reflected that a little bit.
"For 60 minutes on the weekend we were playing a semi-final brand of football and then, in the last 20 minutes, we just dropped our bundle and got ahead of ourselves.
"We were putting pressure on ourselves to guarantee ourselves a finals spot and it took us away from our process.
"When these sorts of occasions come up you don't let those things happen so I can guarantee that won't happen again.
"We'll be playing the full '80' this week."