Faced with a crucially important game against St Kilda on Friday night that, if lost, could see them fall even further off top eight pace, the Dogs could be forgiven for becoming despondent.
However, they're sticking together and still have faith they can haul themselves out of the hole they find themselves in after 11 rounds.
"We still believe. If the guys didn't believe I wouldn't want them out there," defender Dale Morris said on Thursday.
"We still believe we can win, we still believe we're a good team and that's the bottom line. We'll do everything we can this week."
The Dogs' last win came in round eight against Richmond at Etihad Stadium. Their only other two wins were in rounds two and three against the Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast.
Morris admitted the recent string of defeats had become draining but the players had done well to ensure the mood had remained high around Whitten Oval.
"We've got a good group of guys. We do things during the week to try and boost the morale because it is a bit sapping, the more losses that you sustain during the year," he said.
"The leadership group and the players in general have really made an effort to keep things upbeat during the week."
Coach Rodney Eade said while the players' individual confidence might have taken a hit, he was buoyed by the fact they had confronted their problems head-on.
"They're not hiding away. Training has been good, they're attacking, they're doing extras themselves and they're trying to get themselves out of the hole," Eade said.
"It's a test of any team or player, how you handle those down times.
"You've just got to persevere, hang in there and hang tough and that's what good players and teams do."
Morris said the players' encouragement of teammates extended to the field as they did their best to lift one another when things got tough.
He said the backline in particular had rallied around out-of-form defender Brian Lake on Saturday against Geelong when he dropped his shoulders.
"Body language is a big thing…we saw a few examples of that on the weekend and we remind [Lake] to stay upbeat, to stay positive but that's no different to anyone else," he said.
"I lose contests, Tommy Williams loses contests, 'Murph' (Robert Murphy), everyone, and we all get around each other and say 'don't drop your head, next contest, let's butter up'.
"It's no difference, whether it's Brian or myself."
Both Eade and Morris know the importance of Friday night's result but the coach has acknowledged how much work remains in front of the Dogs if they're to climb back into finals contention.
"Even if we win, we've still got to have other things go our way over a period of time," Eade said.
"It's more about getting not only the way we want to play but more about the consistency of effort.
"We've had the effort for a fair bit of games but not the whole time so it's more about the way we go about it."
Eade also said the club had remained focused on its own objectives rather than be drawn into outside assessments of this season's results.
"People are going to criticise because of the expectations and obviously there have been a couple of big defeats. Others have been very close," he said.
"We've got key players out, probably three of our best five, and [Ryan] Hargrave and a few others.
"We've just got to cope with that and people can look at it how they like but it's more about what we worry about internally."
