That’s the question facing Bathurst Bulldogs co-coach Shane Cantrill this week as his side prepares to host the Mudgee Wombats at Ashwood Park tomorrow.

Last weekend the Wombats haemorrhaged points at nearly 1.5 per minute against a rampant Orange City side, having brought a threadbare team into the match.

It was a disappointing end to an encouraging streak in which they improved markedly on the easybeat outfit that wore the Wombats jersey in the opening rounds of the season.

Sensing that Mudgee will have a point to prove, Cantrill says it isn’t the best time to host the Wombats.

“It’s probably the worst, if anything,” he said.

“They had beaten Narromine and almost knocked over CSU the week before that, so they were on a little bit of a roll of good form. Apparently they only had three or four fresh players for the City game, though.

“The rest had already played either a game of seconds or a game of colts, and they played the last 20 minutes with 13 men.”

Bulldogs, for their part, were strong in their away win over Cowra which put them into fourth spot. Depending on other results tomorrow, they can virtually guarantee themselves a finals position by the end of the round.

Locking up fourth position and the home final that comes with it is the primary concern for Cantrill, who endorsed Emus and Dubbo as the two sides best equipped to launch a title bid from here.

“Fourth spot is a must for us. We went into a block of four games saying that we wanted to – and needed to – win all four,” he said.

“We’re two from two so far, with City to come next week.

“I think our second half of the season has been pretty consistent, starting with the loss to Emus, where if we kicked better we might have been able to get past them. We also lost to a Dubbo team who had all their Country players available.

“So I think we’ve done okay. At the moment, from everything I’ve seen, Emus are on a real roll and have good defence and attack well out wide. But I think Dubbo is the team that have the firepower if they’re at their best.”

The co-coach wasn’t on hand to watch his side’s 27-21 win over Cowra, but from speaking to his players, he said that their opening half-hour laid the platform for their victory.

With some regular starters unavailable, he is hoping that they can fill the gaps and still maintain that level of performance.

“By all the indications, that first 30 minutes against Cowra was very strong in terms of keeping our structure and game plan,” he said.

“This week I want us to make sure that when we do move away from that and make those inevitable bad decisions or have brain fades, that we are quickly able to get ourselves back on track and back to what we’re trying to do.

“We’re missing Brodie Scott, Jack Roberson, Oliver Crowe and Alistair Fryer this week, among others – they’re all key guys for us, so we will be testing our depth as we reach into second grade to fill those gaps.”

Bulldogs host Mudgee at Ashwood Park from 3pm.