St George Illawarra are slowly building a side which could be a force come finals time after picking up four wins in their last five games.

After a gritty victory over Canberra on Sunday, St George Illawarra are riding high after quietly picking up four wins from their last five outings to surge into the NRL's top eight.

The Dragons survived a late onslaught in the wet to claim a 12-10 win in Wollongong and move into seventh spot.

The single blip in their recent form has been a 31-12 loss against the third-placed North Queensland Cowboys in Townsville while only league leaders Penrith and fourth-placed Cronulla have beaten the Dragons in eight home games this year.

The impressive run has meant they are within touching distance of playing finals for the first time since 2018.

"It comes with confidence," said Dragons coach Anthony Griffin.

"We've worked really hard on our defence over the last three or four weeks because we lost that for a period there.

"It's a lot easier to defend tonight obviously with the conditions but our intent and our scramble right up to that last set got us home."

Griffin specifically recruited a team with experience this off-season, bringing the likes of Aaron Woods, Francis Molo, Jaydn Su'A, Moses Mbye and Moses Suli to the club.

It's a move aimed at nurturing the Dragons' youngsters, but also provide the starting side with some resilience and starch.

Centre Suli has excelled under Griffin and grabbed his fourth try of the season on Sunday.

Suli has always had the talent but was sacked by Canterbury and Wests before a mixed spell at Manly.

"He's a strike centre and gets us out of our own end, he's just hard to handle and he is a really good teammate," Griffin said.

"There weren't too many opportunities for us but the one time when we changed an angle for him he's just the type of player that can make use of that.

"I was happy he got the run with Tonga last week and we need him to keep building on it."