Canterbury halfback Trent Hodkinson knows just how it feels to be Daly Cherry-Evans.

But Hodkinson is confident the man who replaced him at Manly won't suffer the same second season letdown the Bulldogs No.7 did.

Hodkinson joined Canterbury this season with big expectations after becoming the Sea Eagles' boom half in 2010.

But he endured a tough year, recently describing a crisis of confidence as the Bulldogs struggled.

The gifted playmaker says Cherry-Evans, who has starred in his debut year for Manly, has the stuff to get through the second-year blues.

"Obviously in the second year people study you, get used to you more and things don't come around so easy," Hodkinson told AAP on Thursday.

"I think he'll be right. He'll take a lot of confidence out of this year and can go into next year well.

"He's just proving it out there on the big stage and it's a credit to him, he's going really good."

Hodkinson said the Bulldogs could take their late season turnaround into the NRL finals, if a miracle gets them there this weekend.

Realistically they need an unlikely draw between Newcastle and South Sydney on Friday night to sneak into the play-offs.

That result and a win over Canberra at ANZ Stadium on Sunday would allow them to claim eighth spot, something that looked impossible when they lost six straight mid-season and coach Kevin Moore was punted.

A Souths win would leave the Dogs needing a cricket score, while a Knights win would make a finals appearance virtually impossible.

Canterbury have won three of their past four to remain a mathematical chance and Hodkinson said they would enter a finals series with confidence.

"Anything can happen in finals footy and it's proven that over the past few seasons," he said.

"It's a different ball game in finals footy as well so if we get the chance to be there I know all the boys would be pretty pumped up, especially getting in the hard way."

He said a year which had started brightly with three straight wins had slipped away, but the club would take something from it into their next pre-season.

"Obviously we started well and we had that tough period in the middle of the season where there was valuable points on offer and we just didn't take them," he said.

"We're finishing the season now quite strong too so it's just been one of those years I suppose.

"Hopefully we can just take the back end of this season, the solid footy we've been playing, into next year and fingers crossed we can go all right then."

Hodkinson will train on Saturday after resting his badly bruised ankle and having fluid drained from it during the week.

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