''There were a few flare-ups, but that's going to happen in footy,'' Sailor said.

''(We weren't) rattled, but (Canberra) played like they were a semi-final team and we've just got to make sure we don't panic.

''We must stay composed. At no stage did we really think we couldn't come back, but they (Canberra) dug the knife in a little bit.

''We lost a couple of players, but there's no excuses.

''We've just got to regather ourselves, because the business end of the season is coming up.''

Fired up by a fight between five-eighth Terry Campese and Dragons second-rower Dean Young, Miller's attempted hit on former team-mate Michael Weyman resulted in a head clash and the prop knocked out cold.

While tensions continued to escalate during the game, the Raiders produced a physically committed performance before piling on three tries in seven minutes to set up victory.

''We stuck to the plan and we were aggressive,'' coach David Furner said of Canberra's blueprint to topple the Dragons.

``We didn't talk about bashing them, but we need to stop their go forward. They've got some big boppers in the middle and we needed to try and stop that.''

The Raiders' victory meant for the second year in a row the green machine had stopped the Dragons equalling a record eight successive victories.

It also continued St George Illawarra's hoodoo in the nation's capital, having not won there since 2000.

The Dragons will have two days off before returning to training at WIN Stadium tomorrow. Sailor told the team to remember the disappointment of Saturday night's loss in a bid to spur them on towards the finals.

``It's a reminder of how hard the premiership is to win,'' he said. ``It was a pretty sombre dressing room.

``We've got to lock this feeling in because we don't want to feel like this again.''