Dolphins battered in Battle for Brisbane

An already depleted Dolphins side is likely to be without fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow for a few weeks after he suffered a hamstring injury in tonight’s Battle for Brisbane.

Head Coach Wayne Bennett said ‘trust me, we’ll deal with it’ as the squad prepares for a trip to Darwin next week and recovers from their 28-14 loss to the Broncos.

See the game photos at the end of this story

“I’ve been doing this job a long time. I’ve had a lot of injuries in my coaching career so just trust me, we’ll deal with it,” he said at the post-game press conference.

The game, played in front of a packed Suncorp Stadium, was a tight contest in the first half with the Dolphins only trailing by two points at half-time despite losing Tabuai-Fidow in the 19^th minute. A 15-minute lapse in the second half, however, proved costly with the Broncos running in four tries.

The Dolphins steadied the ship with Jack Bostock and Jamayne Isaako scoring in the final 10 minutes to reduce the deficit from 28-4 to 28-14.

“Things didn’t go right for about 15 minutes, but the rest of the half was pretty good,” Bennett said.

“We just lost our way there for a small period of time.

“There’s lots of things I liked about tonight. We knew if you look at their stats … they score a lot of their tries off opportunities like we gave them tonight.

“We got a bit loose. I think we had nine sets and we only completed four in that period of time. It doesn’t work for us that stuff and it cost us three tries at least.”

So, what was he happy with?

“Our effort, the way we fought back. They were getting easy tries, we were still working pretty hard and getting nothing … we could have thrown our hands in the air and could have finished up with 50 (points) on us but we didn’t do that,” he said.

“I was pleased with our first half. I thought their effort was tremendous.”

Captain Jesse Bromwich says the team will continue to adopt the ‘next-man-up mentality' to deal with the loss of Tabuai-Fidow which follows injuries to Thomas Flegler, Herbie Farnworth and Felise Kaufusi last week.

Kodi Nikorima left the field in tonight’s game with a calf issue, but Bennett says he should be OK for next Friday night’s game against the Eels.

“It’s just next-man-up mentality. Last year, we had to do the same thing. Unfortunately we’re pretty used to handling a bit of adversity so we’ll be looking to keep doing that,” Bromwich said.

“I think we get Max Plath back next week so I’m looking forward to him coming back and injecting a bit of energy into the squad.”

Scans will reveal the extent of Tabuai-Fidow’s injury, but Bennett already knows he will need to come up with a plan to cover his absence for a few weeks.

“It’s not too bad. He’s had a history of hamstrings … hasn’t had one for a couple of years he told me. He’s going to be (out for) three or four weeks at least, I assume,” Bennett said.

As for who will play fullback …

“I don’t know yet. We have some centres there that can play fullback … we’ve got to replace them… I’m not sure what the best option is right now,” Bennett said.

He does not think Flegler will be ready to play next week as he continues to recover from a shoulder injury.

“It’s coming (along) a bit better but it’s not where it should be … pretty slow process by the look of it so I probably think he won’t be right,” Bennett said.

Battle for Brisbane game photos 

By Dominika Lis