Canterbury NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg has what he wanted, an antagonising decision over who to appoint as the Bulldogs' full-time coach.

After Kevin Moore was sacked leading into the round 19 clash against the Warriors, Greenberg had just one message for his interim replacement Jim Dymock: "Make it hard for me."

And armed with a 5-3 record since then, Greenberg says Dymock has done everything in his power to be appointed the head coach before an expected announcement within a month.

"Jimmy's done everything asked of him, the team's playing well, they've responded to him," said Greenberg.

"He got an opportunity a couple of months ago and he's taken it with both hands."

Greenberg said he's got his shortlist down to about 12 genuine candidates, with NSW coach Ricky Stuart still among them.

"We haven't set ourselves a deadline but I'd anticipate we'd have an answer in or around the grand final, so the next couple of weeks," he said.

"I said two things from the outset, I said we'd give Jimmy every opportunity to be successful and a lot of people said to us 'oh you're just going to announce someone within the next week just like Penrith did,' but we didn't do that.

"We were true to our word and said we'd give him every chance which we've done.

"The other thing is we said we'd do a very thorough process over all the candidates and I'm about two thirds of the way through that now and I want to finish that off.

"There's a good quality dozen names on a list that any one of those people could coach the club, but we've got to make sure we get the right person and the right fit."

After Canterbury's 36-22 win over Canberra, Dymock again declared he wants the top job.

Retiring veterans Andrew Ryan and Michael Hodgson endorsed Dymock as the man to lead the Bulldogs, as did star Ben Barba.

"Since Jimmy's come, no offence to Kev but it was like a breath of fresh air, and he's not only a coach he's like one of the boys and he's honest with you," Barba said.

Hodgson said Dymock's "enthusiasm and skill knowledge" got his vote, while Ryan also praised the former NSW and Test star, before cheekily suggesting he might apply to be one of the names on the shortlist.

"I think he's been outstanding since he's taken over, he's been great to have around, I've known Jimmy for a long time, he played in me and Hodgo's debut games and he's a footy head," Ryan said.

"He loves being around it but I don't make those decisions... but I might toss my hat in the ring now (I've retired)."

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