Souths forward Chris McQueen says if Canterbury has proven one thing in recent weeks it is that they are genuine premiership contenders.
The Bulldogs had proven their mettle over the past three weeks by hanging tough to defeat the Roosters, Warriors and, on Good Friday, the Rabbitohs with field goals each time.
"They're obviously a great team and will be one of the top teams come the end of the year," said McQueen after the Bulldogs beat them 15-14.
"They were never going to give up and, even though it wasn't a massive lead, it was always anybody's game that whole game ... it was just a massive dogfight and they got the chocolates.
"To win [three games] by one point, they're going to take a lot from that."
McQueen said those who had expected the Bulldogs to lose their mojo because of Ben Baba's move to Brisbane should think again.
"Losing Benny Barba, probably a lot of people expected them to lose their go-forward because he added that spark," he said.
"But they've changed their game a bit. Anytime you have the big, strong forwards leading the way, you're going to do well. I think they have gone under the radar a bit but they're one of the teams to look out for."
McQueen said he and his teammates had learnt plenty in the opening seven rounds – and not all of the lessons were welcome.
"In tight games [like the one against Canterbury] it's the fundamental errors, the little things that make a big difference," he said. "I think there were about three or four key areas where we lost that game. Little errors, like not completing our sets, hurt us in the end."
Halfback Adam Reynolds lamented that the Rabbitohs paid the price for not working towards a field goal at the death.
"We went away from giving ourselves a shot at field goal rather than trying to put on a big play just setting up for that little one," he said.
While Souths players had made similar observations about costly errors in their defeats to the Wests Tigers, Canberra and Manly, McQueen said they had worked hard to fix the problem areas.
"It all comes down to hard work," he said. "There is no substitute for that. If you haven't trained hard, you're not going to play hard.
"We'll return to training this week, we have another short turnaround playing the Broncos this Friday, and we'll train hard, practice our skills, practice our defence and take that into next week's game.
"Losing to Canterbury was disappointing. We got up to an early lead, going into the second half we were up by eight. It was end-to-end football and try-for-try at the end but, unfortunately, they got back with us and kicked that field goal."
