Call it a Churchillian call to arms, in the belly of Belmore Oval.

“I’m excited to prove all the haters wrong,” Bulldogs skipper Stephen Crichton says.

The siege mentality is alive and well at Canterbury after a stirring dressing room address from their captain following Saturday’s 24-6 loss to Cronulla , in which the Bulldogs were largely listless in attack and lost Bronson Xerri (concussion) and Marcelo Montoya (ankle).

In the Accor Stadium sheds, Crichton told his side immediately after their fourth defeat in six weeks that the walls were about to close in.

The message was seized upon and repeated on Monday – first at a sunny NRL finals launch and then in the carpark at Canterbury. Bulldogs players and their skipper smiled, obliged and were polite to a fault as they explained how

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