'Cop our medicine': Bulldogs pack must aim up physically

Adam Elliott says Canterbury's young pack must front up and "cop their medicine" or risk being humbled repeatedly by the NRL's best forwards.

The Bulldogs back-rower and his teammates are on a five-day bounce from a 40-4 thumping from the Dragons into a Good Friday clash with premiership heavyweights South Sydney.

Coach Dean Pay was exasperated by the "simple, simple errors" in the loss to St George Illawarra.

Elliott put Canterbury's 11 mistakes down to an unwillingness to match the Dragons in the physical arm wrestle. As a result, he expects the Rabbitohs big men to target the Bulldogs forwards on Friday.

"The Dragons were really aggressive with their line speed and they were getting up quickly on us," Elliott told NRL.com.

"I think we tried to combat that with a bit of ball movement when we probably should've rolled the sleeves up and just copped our medicine for a 10-minute period.

"If we got in the arm wrestle that stuff might've flowed later on but we threw the ball around too early and it led to those errors and us never being in the game.

"This is probably the biggest game of the year for our forward pack coming up against Souths, they're a fast, physical pack and they'll try and bash us and do the exact same thing.

"It's a big occasion, there's emotion in it and we've got to be better to match them."

The Bulldogs are without Queensland Origin forward Dylan Napa (ankle) for another month, and have farewelled the likes of James Graham, David Klemmer and Aaron Woods as a result of salary cap pressure over the last 18 months.

It's not about laying blame on anyone, it's something we've got to learn from

Bulldogs forward Adam Elliott

After promising efforts against the Tigers and Storm in recent weeks, Sunday's capitulation brought the Bulldogs back to earth – and last place on the ladder - with a resounding thud and a particularly uncomfortable video review session this week.

"It was tough to watch, but it's about being accountable," skipper Josh Jackson said.

"It's not always easy to own up to your mistakes and be as honest as you need to be to yourself or your teammates, but there's a method in it.

"It's not about laying blame on anyone, it's something we've got to do and learn from.

"And the best way to learn from a game like that is to go over it, every little detail, and realise that we can't afford to make those little errors.

"They're the type of things that will snowball because they're bigger errors when you've got a team like the Dragons that can capitalise on them and it'll lead to a scoreline like that."