After a rollercoaster campaign, the Bulldogs will battle Collingwood in a historic wildcard match at the MCG on Friday night that will begin a five-week finals series.
The Dogs started 2026 brightly, winning their first four matches, including stirring triumphs in Brisbane and Adelaide.
But injuries, Sam Darcy the most notable, led to a decline where they lost five of six games.
A shock defeat to North Melbourne in round 22 had the football public largely writing Luke Beveridge's side off.
But a brave draw against Carlton, without Marcus Bontempelli, and an impressive win over Melbourne last week has the Bulldogs faithful believing again.
A renowned attacking team, the Dogs' best wins have come on the back of team defence.
"It's a bit of throwaway saying, but defence wins premierships," Kennedy told AAP.
"That's something we really focused on in the pre-season, especially coming off last year.
"It probably took a little bit longer than what we would have liked, and had to change a few things, and go back and forth a little bit.
"But I feel like we've struck a good balance between our offence and defence, and they both link into one another as well. We've got a pretty good mix at the minute, and hopefully we've worked it out just in time."
It will be Kennedy's first finals campaign since arriving at the Whitten Oval from Carlton during the 2024 trade period.
The Bulldogs remain searching for a first finals win since they won three-straight games on the road to make it to the 2021 decider.
"I feel like we're starting to hit form at the right time of the year and really believe," Kennedy said.
"We haven't probably been as consistent as we would have liked and we were figuring out how we want to play. I feel like it's starting to gel together at the right time.
"I feel like we've got a lot of belief, especially after the last two home and away games. We've given ourselves a chance and in finals, anything can happen."
The match will feature arguably the game's two premier players - Nick Daicos and Marcus Bontempelli.
Due to Darcy Moore's season-ending injury, Daicos will be Bontempelli's opposing captain.
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