The Bulldogs, on the back of a 12-match winning streak, have one hand on the minor premiership heading into the penultimate round.

They are four points ahead of the Melbourne Storm, and can't finish the regular season any worse than second.

If they remain undefeated on the way to claiming the premiership they would have to win a record 17 matches in a row - leading to the theory that it would be better to lose now in order to erase the pressure.

But Tolman, who won the 2009 grand final at the Storm, said the Bulldogs remained focused on winning each match.

''Definitely not mate, all that talk about that stuff is not real,'' Tolman said.

''You want to make sure you're going out there and performing your best week in and week out.

''Even though we have been winning, we've been taking a lot out of our games.''

That's been especially true in the past fortnight, the Bulldogs getting pushed to the brink in their two most recent wins against the Brisbane Broncos and Wests Tigers.

The Broncos raced out to a 14-0 lead before the Bulldogs reeled them in, running out 22-14 victors.

Last week, a desperate Tigers took the competition frontrunners to golden-point extra-time, only for Krisnan Inu to slot a match-winning field goal in the 89th minute to help the Bulldogs fall over the line, 23-22.

''Both of those games have been very tough,'' Tolman said.

''We ended up crawling our way back into the game against the Broncos, and the Tigers were playing for their season.

''It's the same with the Raiders, who are playing for that finals position.''

The Raiders are locked on 26 competition points with the seventh-placed Broncos and the eighth-placed Tigers, but are ninth on the table due to an inferior points differential. Canberra would likely need to beat both the Bulldogs and the New Zealand Warriors in Auckland next week to make the finals.

The Bulldogs play the lowly Sydney Roosters in the final round.