Croker, 31, impressed in his first outing for the season but appeared to injure his shoulder diving to prevent a try in the 76th minute of Friday night's clash.
The centre was down for a number of minutes before walking from the field.
It was a sad ending to a scrappy contest that saw the Raiders snap their five-game losing streak, and perhaps most importantly avoid yet another second-half fade-out in moving to 3-6 for the season.
They began on the front foot and were held up in-goal twice in the first 10 minutes, with both sides combining for five errors in that span.
The Raiders led on 17 minutes though, with Elliott Whitehead carrying multiple defenders over the line as he scored the opening try.
Five-eighth Matt Frawley - filling in for suspended star Jack Wighton - really broke the game open with a delightful try, throwing a dummy and skipping through a soft Canterbury defensive line to make it 10-0 on 33 minutes.
Things were looking too good to be true when Croker seemed to score before halftime, and they were as the try was ruled out due to a knock-on.
The 15th-placed Bulldogs (2-7) just couldn't keep control of the football, completing just 52 per cent of their sets and allowing the Raiders 60 per cent of possession and an extra 400m in the first half.
They were lucky to be anywhere near Canberra after lengthy intercept returns from Hudson Young and Nick Cotric, with the Raiders settling for a penalty goal and a 12-0 advantage on 52 minutes.
Home fans were fearing another collapse when Bulldogs five-eighth Matt Burton crossed for a try with 20 minutes to play, but Canberra closed the contest out with uncharacteristic composure.
The Raiders had performers across the board with 10 players running for more than 100m, led by Joe Tapine's 180m.
It was an underwhelming performance from the Bulldogs, looking a shadow of the side that rolled the Sydney Roosters last weekend.
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad's return to the Canberra side was somewhat short-lived, taken from the field with a leg injury in the second half, while Josh Papali'i remained on the field after appearing to hurt his leg.
Controversially, Bulldog forward Tevita Pangai Jnr looked to drop an elbow into Raider Adam Elliott's head while on the ground early in the contest, but he avoided anything other than a penalty.
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