Raiders coach Ricky Stuart could be on the hunt for a new lock forward with a foot injury leaving Corey Horsburgh in doubt for a clash with St George Illawarra at Canberra Stadium on Friday.

Joe Tapine missed round seven with a niggling knee injury but could bolster the inconsistent Raiders this week as they look to snap a two-match losing streak in their return to the capital.

"I'm working as hard as I can. If the position is there, I'm going to put my hand up," Sutton said.

"It's not ideal for Corey but we're all in this together. We're all going to rally around each other now and make sure we don't get our heads down.

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"This game [against Parramatta] is gone, it's a long season ahead. We've got good motivation to go into this next game now.

"It's another test for us. We've just played against probably the pinnacle [forward pack] of the competition, we didn't play well and we got into extra-time.

"We're coming up against a quality pack and some quality outside backs, we've got to make sure we're on our game and we're doing the little minor details good."

Canberra have failed to string consecutive wins together since the competition resumed but remain just two wins off the pace set by the ladder leading Eels.

Stuart is adamant the Raiders aren't far off the mark but they have struggled for rhythm in attack to back up their status as one of the league's best defensive units.

Canberra veteran Sia Soliola says "we need to be a little bit more direct" with ball in hand after reverting to "uncharacteristic" errors during the golden point loss to Parramatta.

Sutton believes Canberra have been their own worst enemy in recent weeks having been guilty at times of overplaying their hand.

"We're not helping ourselves at all. It is a tough one because we've got the desire there and we've got the want to do it," Sutton said.

"It's just the little execution things that we have not got. Obviously we've got to look into that. We've got a tough week ahead going into a tough game, so we've got to learn fast.

"It's obviously good being back home, that's a good thing we've got. You can't take any excuses from that, Campbelltown has been a good venue for us.

"It's not good being away from home because you always want that advantage. It's always exciting to be back at [Canberra], but we've got to improve drastically and look forward to the game against the Dragons."

NRL ROUND EIGHT

Friday: Canberra Raiders v St George Illawarra Dragons at Canberra Stadium, 6pm.