Red-faced Red V readied for redemption

St George Illawarra were upstaged 28-6 by the cellar dwellers in a result that significantly hurt their finals aspirations. The Red V have won just two of their past nine games and cling to eighth spot heading into Saturday's clash with the Raiders at WIN Stadium.

Bird said the Dragons were keen to move on quickly from the shock loss to Canterbury.

"Coming off a good win against Brisbane (52-24), I think we went in there a bit too confident. Most of the team thought we were going to win and took them way too lightly," he said.

"But we knew the Bulldogs wanted to come out and play good footy and that they were going to do everything to get another win. We just weren't up for it, we didn't play too our standards. It was pretty embarrassing.

"But we've still got confidence in each other. We've got to go over the things we know we can improve on. We've shown what we can do throughout the year, we've just got to find that fire in the belly again.

''We know what works and what wins games, and obviously on the weekend that wasn't it. We know we're much better than what we dished up on the weekend. It's just disappointing for the club and the players. We know what we need to fix, but it isn't going to be easy. We've got to train harder and play harder as well."

Saturday's match is equally important for Canberra, knocking on the top eight's door despite having a disappointing season so far.

However, there were a signs of a return to form in last week's 38-16 win over Brisbane, headlined by Josh Papalii's strong performance.

"From sixth or seventh spot to 10th spot, it's pretty clogged up. We're all on the same points and we know we've got to win to stay in the top eight. But if we want to go far in this competition, we've got to start winning games. And it all comes down to defence, our attack will work off that," Bird said.

"Obviously they've had a tough season as well, so it's going to be a good game. Hopefully we can dish up something better than we did on the weekend."