South Sydney’s finals campaign is in disarray after the Rabbitohs were thumped 32-12 by Canterbury at ANZ Stadium on Friday night.
Not only did the Rabbitohs lose their third match of their last four, but star forward Sam Burgess was placed on report and hooker Beau Falloon suffered a suspected broken arm.
The Rabbitohs began the round in eighth spot and are now certain to be out of the top eight by Monday.
The Bulldogs, in contrast, had one of their brightest nights of a tough season and remain a mathematical chance of reaching the finals with five rounds to play.
Highlight of the night for the Bulldogs came 10 minutes from the finish, when veteran fullback Luke Patten scored his 100th career try from a clever Brett Kimmorley chip kick.
The try capped a mixed night for Patten, who made several blunders over the 80 minutes but finished with a big smile on his face. Only this week, the star fullback announced he is off to England with Salford in 2011.
Burgess could face time on the sideline after a grapple tackle on Bulldogs youngster Ben Barba.
The Bulldogs started far more positively than Souths in wet and slippery conditions and were rewarded with the opening try after just three minutes.
Five-eighth Barba put in a well-placed grubber kick that took a deflection off the foot of Souths lock Ben Lowe.
That was enough to get the ball past the Rabbitohs defence, and straight to Bulldogs winger Bryson Goodwin who dived on it for the simplest of tries.
Goodwin then landed a superb sideline conversion with the wet ball to get the Bulldogs off to a flying start at 6-0.
Souths had a great chance to hit back minutes later when winger Fetuli Talanoa dived over, but replays showed a good tackle by his opposite, Steve Turner, forced his leg out before he touched down.
The Rabbitohs key man, Issac Luke, back from a three-week absence through injury, was surprisingly left on the bench for the opening exchanges.
But he got an early call to arms when Falloon was taken from the field at the 20th minute with a suspected broken arm.
He was only on the field a matter of seconds when the Bulldogs scored again, with quick hands seeing Turner score in the right corner.
Goodwin again landed a superb conversion from out wide to extend the lead to 12-0.
Luke made his mark on the game in the 29th minute, packing into a scrum at lock near the Bulldogs tryline, breaking away and putting halfback Chris Sandow over for a smart try.
Luke converted to reduce the deficit to 12-6 but the Bulldogs struck a vital blow just before the break when prop Chris Armit strolled through some dreadful Souths defence for his first try of 2010.
The second half was a scrappy affair, with the Bulldogs adding two tries to one and never being seriously challenged by the fumbling Souths side.