Bulldogs captain Andrew Ryan says his side is not getting carried away with their position on the NRL ladder despite sitting three games clear in the top four.

The Bulldogs trail only St George Illawarra on points differential at the top of the table following Friday night's 30-18 demolition of fifth-placed North Queensland at ANZ Stadium.

If not for two late Cowboys tries, the Dogs would be sitting top of the tree.

With 24 points after 16 rounds, the Bulldogs need only three wins from their final 10 games to secure a finals position but are more likely to reach September with a place in the coveted top four.

But Ryan isn't letting the club's brilliant start to 2009, they've won 11 of 14 games, shift their focus.

While they've had to reassess their goals midseason, Ryan doesn't want the players thinking about finals just yet.

In the past week they've lost prop Ben Hannant (up to six weeks) with a knee injury and boom centre Jamal Idris (five weeks) with an elbow dislocation.

It is these two setbacks which Ryan says reminds the players they can't afford to think about anything but the present.

"I think at the start of the year we didn't want to set any goals but I guess now that we're over half way through the competition we want to be part of semi-final football," he said.

"But as you can see what happened to us over the last week, you can lose a couple of guys to injury but we were lucky enough to have some depth and guys who can step in.

"Now it's just about, and I know it's pretty boring, but just week to week for us. You don't know what's around the corner, whether a few injuries strike.

"We just need to keep working hard and hopefully the rewards come at the end of the year."

Coach Kevin Moore agreed that it is too soon for his side to be thinking of the finals.

"I think when you start focussing on those kind of things you lose sight of what you've got to do," said Moore.

"A big thing we have done all year is try and focus on the little things that go towards a good performance. We spoke a lot this week about just doing the little one per centers right and just turning up for each other and getting through the game with limited mistakes.

"I thought probably our first 65 minutes was up there with our best all year.

"The last 15 minutes I was a bit disappointed with. We just got away from what we did really well but that gives us something to work on during the week."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP