Sutton error costly

It was the moment of madness that probably ended South Sydney's season.

With the Rabbitohs leading 18-10 after 51 minutes of a pulsating encounter with the Bulldogs at ANZ Stadium on Sunday, pivot John Sutton threw rugby league convention out the window by lobbing a ball for centre Colin Best in a desperate bid to avoid being caught in-goal.

The ball fell to the ground as Best changed direction, Dogs winger Hazem El Masri diving on the scraps to bring his team back into the contest.

With the momentum changing in that split second, Canterbury kicked clear to claim a 26-18 victory and send the Bunnies' finals hopes into a tailspin.

Explaining his brain explosion, Sutton said: "I've seen 'Besty' there and he called for it so I went to pass it and he's taken off from me and I've passed it and set up Hazem."

"I thought he (Best) was standing there to catch it and when I passed it he was on the run."

"I got back there to stop a try and end up giving one."

"I was a bit disappointed in it. I had a little walk off and tried to re-group and get on with it."

"It was a big mistake from me but we were still in the lead."

Best admitted to his part in one of the season's biggest blunders, saying: "That was just an error of judgment. I called for it. They come off 90 times out of 100 but it wasn't to be today."

"Most of their tries were scrappy, fumbly tries and we're pretty disappointed with the result."

"We feel they didn't beat us, we beat ourselves."

"We expected to get the result so we're pretty shattered."

Rabbitohs coach Jason Taylor refused to blame his side's defeat on the Sutton incident, as crucial as it was.

He believes Souths, who led 18-16 after gifting El Masri his try, should have shown more resolve as the Bulldogs mounted their comeback.

"That was a tough one but it's hard to be critical because if he didn't pass it we'd be thinking 'Colin Best is standing right there, why didn't you just give him the ball and he runs out into the field of play?' " Taylor said.

"We were still ahead by at that stage. The game was there to be won and we played well enough to win it, but it's just our ability to hang tough when it gets tough that we're working on."

"We need to concentrate for 80 minutes. Errors like that one let the pressure off and put us under pressure."