Coach Rodney Eade said the club isn't in dire straits, despite its disappointing return since posting an impressive round one win, and is optimistic the past two weeks have given the players plenty of reasons to fire up for round four.
"I'd like to think (there's more of a resolve)," he said on Tuesday.
"As a coach, I can get here and say that some of the coaches tend to spruik that you'll see a far better effort this week.
"Certainly for our own confidence, we need to show a great deal of resolve and certainly for the fans and supporters, who have great expectations for us, and in the last two weeks we haven't been up to standard."
Eade is hoping his players attack the Tigers with a tough mentality on Friday, and is optimistic an increase in confidence across his side will produce a more favourable result.
"We need to get back to what we were two weeks ago," he said.
"It was only two weeks ago that we won contested ball, we won hard-ball gets, we played with a fair bit of risk.
"For whatever reason, we've gone back into our shell a fair bit. Whether it's the young group, whether the team and the club is not used to being the hunted … there's a whole range of things and I'm not really sure of the answer.
"Certainly our confidence has gone down in a couple of weeks, but you can get that back pretty quickly. It just needs to be a general across-the-board, people playing like they're playing for their life."
The Bulldogs are set to meet a side that is also struggling, with Richmond dropping its three games despite leading at times throughout each one.
Eade said he is expecting a physical encounter between two clubs that are determined to right the wrongs of recent weeks.
"They've played some good footy over the three weeks. They probably could have won any one of those games," he said.
"I think it will be a pretty desperate game from two desperate sides. It will be a fairly physical game, but it will be between two teams that are desperate to win.
"Both teams will try and win rather than teams trying not to lose."
