Sometimes as a coach you talk those things up to create that sense of urgency but I haven’t had to say any of that to the guys this week. It goes without saying.

They know it. I can see it in their actions and their mindset. The pointy end of the season doesn’t get much pointier than where we’re at now.

At the end of the day we’ve got five games to go and mathematically we can 100 per cent make the playoffs. We’ve got four games in nine days so this is it.

We’ve got to win or we’re done. We’ve got to get that win because we’ll travel back Saturday we’ll basically have no training and then play Cairns on Monday. 

What gives me a level of confidence is that this scenario has typically brought out the best in us. When we play desperate with energy and backs to the wall we’ve been good and come up with some big wins.

At other times we’re feeling pretty good about ourselves and it’s been about harnessing that momentum and keeping it going we’ve struggled.

The mindset of the group’s been outstanding this week. I haven’t had to remind them of the situation – it’s d-day for us and it doesn’t get any tougher than going to Perth.

A the start of the season, without knowing where you’re going to be on the ladder, or in the finals equation, you pencil in this game as one of the toughest. 

You’re in Perth Arena, they’ve got that massive crowd around them, they’ve won 30 of the last 31 games there. It’s always a daunting task.

They’ve obviously had their hurdles to overcome this season. I was surprised to see them lose eight of 10 games but I wasn’t all that surprised to see them slip into some sort of hole.

It’s tough to travel to Perth but they make their fair share of tough trips themselves. They’re one of the benchmark franchises so there’s a bit of tall-poppy syndrome there as well.

Every team gets up to play them but they’ve won their last three in a row now and they’re feeling good about themselves. 

As I’ve said, we were written off a month ago but we’re still here and we’re in the finals hunt. People have differing opinions on that fact, whether it’s by good work or good fortune. Most people seem to think the latter but we’ve beaten every team in the competition.

We’ve had good wins against Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane, two against Sydney, two against Adelaide. I’m the first to admit we’ve had some shockers as well.

There’s some others we’ve let slip that we’d love to have over again but, if we beat Perth in Perth, there’s no question we’re a legit playoff team. It’s on us to prove as much.