The Dolphins have completed their regular season with a seventh successive victory, recovering from a 14-0 deficit to beat the Gold Coast Titans 24-20 at Cbus Super Stadium and strengthen their claim as the NRL’s comeback specialists.
Kristian Woolf’s side finished third with a club-record 17 wins, 11 of them achieved after conceding the opening try. Their latest escape also echoed their first win of the season, when they overturned a 14-0 deficit against the Titans to prevail 18-14 at Suncorp Stadium.
The Dolphins appeared in danger of surrendering their momentum when Gold Coast raced into an early lead. But Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow scored twice, running for 261 metres, while substitute winger Tevita Naufahu made 246 metres in his first appearance in place of the injured Selwyn Cobbo.
Ray Stone helped turn the contest after the break before Tabuai-Fidow crossed again to put the visitors in control. They led 24-14 with 10 minutes remaining, only for Jayden Campbell to intercept a pass and score his second try of his 100th NRL appearance.
Gold Coast pressed for an equaliser in the closing stages, but the Dolphins held firm to secure a victory which moved them to 40 competition points, level with the New Zealand Warriors and Penrith Panthers ahead of their final-round matches.
The result means the Dolphins will face either Penrith or the Warriors in a qualifying final next week. Their exact opponent and whether they will host the match will be settled after Penrith’s meeting with Wests Tigers on Sunday.
Despite the slow start, Woolf was more concerned with getting his team through the match without injuries or suspensions than with the manner of the performance.
“I am not too worried about it, to be honest,” the Dolphins coach said of the opening exchanges. “I think tonight was a hard game for us in a lot of ways.”
The Dolphins conceded 10 penalties and made four errors in the first half, with Woolf acknowledging that their yardage and discipline had fallen below the required standard.
“We were a little bit tentative at the start in different areas but got ourselves into gear,” he said. “The two most important things are that we won, and we got no injuries.”
Their form in the opening stages of matches remains a concern. The Dolphins have failed to score in the first 20 minutes of each of their past five games, yet have won all five, conceding only four tries across the final 60 minutes of those contests while accumulating 146 points.
That resilience has been built around a powerful forward pack led by Tom Gilbert, while Isaiya Katoa, Herbie Farnworth and Tabuai-Fidow provide the attacking threat capable of changing a match quickly. Kurt Donoghoe and Ray Stone also give Woolf a disruptive edge from the interchange bench.
“I am very confident in the group and what I think we can do,” Woolf said. “We have just got to be at our best and we will be hard to beat.”
