The Newcastle Knights will be forced into a do-or-die showdown with the Rabbitohs next Friday night after they surrendered a sizable half-time lead to go down 32-22 to a resurgent Canterbury at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night.
Regardless of whether the Rabbitohs beat Brisbane on Sunday, eighth spot will be decided in the final round Ausgrid Stadium clash when the Bunnies take on the struggling Knights, who have now lost their past three matches.
The Bulldogs have joined Souths and Newcastle on 26 competition points, but a poor points differential means their only realistic chance of sneaking into eighth spot would be if they beat Canberra in Round 26 and Souths and Newcastle draw their game.
The Bulldogs lacked total respect for the ball in first half, deservedly going into the break 22-6 down.
But Jim Dymock's men came out like a team possessed in the second half to post five unanswered tries and claim an incredible comeback victory much to the delight of the 10,257 fans in attendance.
One of Canterbury's weaknesses for much of the year has been full-back Ben Barba's temperament under the high ball and the Knights exploited this area with almost immediate success.
Half-back Jarrod Mullen went the bomb option, putting skipper Kurt Gidley in a one-on-one challenge with Barba, and the Knights' skipper came up trumps to net a fifth minute converted try under the sticks.
The Bulldogs were extremely unlucky to concede a 30m Gidley penalty goal in the 13th minute to give the visitors an 8-0 advantage after Knights hooker Isaac De Gois was ruled to have had possession stripped when it clearly wasn't.
The Dogs just weren't in the opening 25 minutes, but luckily for them it was penalty goals clicking the scoreboard over for the Knights rather than tries.
Gidley landed a 24th minute penalty goal to make it 10-0 in favour of the Knights, before the Bulldogs made the most of their first genuine bust just before the half-hour mark when some clever left-edge passing allowed centre Josh Morris to cover 45m on his way to the line.
But a poor Aiden Tolman play-the-ball a couple of plays after the restart resulted in a Knights' possession and an eventual soft Richard Fa'aoso try under the posts.
Gidley's simple conversion opened up a 16-6 lead for the Knights.
More pathetic errors in their own half continued to haunt the Dogs, and when Mullen grubbered through for back-rower Zane Tetevano to score his fist NRL try, the Knights had their commanding 22-6 half-time lead.
The Dogs stormed out of the blocks in the second half to post a 45th minute try to winger Steve Turner and the rejuvenated Sydney club backed that up with a powerful set of six to go back-to-back.
Hooker Josh Reynolds put the cherry on top when he sliced through some paper-thin Newcastle defence to net a fine 48th minute solo try.
Turner's conversion meant the Dogs were now within range at 22-16 down.
There was more joy just before the hour for Canterbury when some quick offloading saw half-back Trent Hodkinson find space and set up centre Jamal Idris in the right corner.
Unfortunately Turner was astray with the conversion, leaving his side behind by two points.
But on the back of a mountain of possession with 10 minutes to go, the home side finally hit the front when Barba zipped over from 15m