Much of the conversation around the Canterbury Bulldogs this season has been in relation to the wooden spoon.
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But Dean Pay isn't looking at that.
He's not looking at building with his young side next season yet either.
The Dubbo product and Bulldogs coach is firmly focused on the 2019 campaign.
The Bulldogs are six points outside the top eight with six rounds remaining and while a charge to the finals is unlikely, it's far from impossible.
"We'll talk about next year next year," Pay said ahead of Canterbury's hosting of eighth-placed Wests Tigers on Saturday night.
"What we want to do is make sure we finish the year off really well and then rolling into next year we want to take the confidence out of what we did this year.
"Then we've got some money to go into the market place and we're having a look around, so we need to be really smart about who we buy and bring into the place and make sure that they can improve our team."
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Himself contracted until the end of 2020, Pay wants to remain at Belmore for much longer.
While there hasn't been a huge amount of success yet, there has been progress with the young side.
After a slow start last year the side rallied and finish 12th, while this year the outfit still affected by salary cap restraints has shown positive signs lately and defeated Penrith in a standout showing last weekend.
"I'd like to stay here for quite a while," he said.
"We've done all the hard work. Last year and this year we've rowed through some really tough periods.
"Over the next 18 months, two years, I think that's where we're going to see some real progress."
