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Canterbury coach Trent Barrett believes his side are beginning to turn the corner after facing all of last year's top four in successive weeks.

Trent Barrett believes that after playing and being beaten by all of last year's top four, Canterbury are well steeled to put together a block of consistent form to shoot up the NRL ladder.

The Bulldogs ended a tough few weeks where their spine has been in flux and when they have copped some pastings from some of the NRL's heavyweights.

Friday's 36-16 loss to South Sydney didn't tell half the tale. The Dogs were in control for the first 25 minutes leading by a converted try, and were unfortunate to have not scored at least three more.

Barrett's side, who finished bottom in 2021, are playing in patches, but not enough that they are able to maintain any solid pressure on their opponents.

"We need to start putting 80 minutes together," Barrett said.

"In terms of competing against some really good sides, we've copped a whole lot of them; Manly away, Melbourne away, Penrith at CommBank and Souths.

"It's the whole top four (from last year). Take out the Melbourne game and we were competitive in all of them. We're coming into a block of six or seven games where we can win."

Canterbury's next month includes games against Brisbane, the Sydney Roosters, Canberra and Newcastle which should spark an upturn in form. If not questions may begin to be asked about their direction.

In some positive signs for the club Josh Addo-Carr found his way to the tryline for the first time in his Bulldogs career, ending the longest drought of his NRL career since bursting onto the scene with Wests Tigers.

In less positive news, the Dogs are likely to be without Chris Patolo (concussion) and Braidon Burns (hamstring) for next week's trip to Brisbane which forced the coach into a reshuffle.

Barrett's side have one win this season, 6-4 in round one over North Queensland, but he said if they cut out the errors and lapses of concentration they can start to climb up the ladder.

"They (Souths) had a couple of tries we should've stopped," he said.

"Regardless of the things that went against us, if you stop them then you are still in the hunt.

"We need to put in 20 minutes for another 20 and do it again and again."