Kristian Woolf: ‘We’re not a mile off’

The Dolphins NRL team will have to wait a little longer for their first win of 2025, after going down to the Tigers 30-18 in their round three clash at Redcliffe’s Kayo Stadium tonight.

The stadium was a sea of red and white as fans took the chance to see their team play at their spiritual home for the first of two games on the Peninsula this season.

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And the Dolphins proudly wore their heritage red and white jerseys, shorts and socks as a nod to the club’s Grand Final win in 1965 – 60 years ago this year.

It’s something they will do again when they play at Redcliffe for the last game of the regular season.

The Dolphins played with more energy than they did in last week’s loss to the Knights but missed opportunities to put points on the board and made mistakes which the Tigers used to their advantage.

The Dolphins were leading the Tigers for a fair portion of the first half and went to the break ahead 18-12, but stagnated in the second half as the Tigers put on three tries.

Head Coach Kristian Woolf says the side needs to stop beating themselves but they’re ‘not a mile off’ where they need to be.

“I thought we showed some improvements from the first couple of weeks. At the end of the day, we beat ourselves a little bit there in that second half,” Woolf said.

“We didn’t quite get our fifth play right and when we did have a little bit of field position and we were on top early … made a couple of errors, backed that up with penalties and were on the back foot for a lot of that second half. We just didn’t quite know how to fight our way out of it.”

When asked if he was disappointed no one in the Dolphins’ spine stood up as Api Koroisau did for the Tigers, Woolf was quick to answer.

“I don’t think it was an individual. We can certainly take some responsibility for our fifth play … we left three tries out there that are definite tries. That’s not on our halves,” he said.

“We need to nail those opportunities there and that makes a big difference. When we made the errors, we tended to complicate them with penalties … that’s on all of us.

“I’m not disappointed with any individual. I’m disappointed with our performance overall. A big call on the game was when we had a penalty in the second half … we needed to take (a kick for) two (points). We’ll make sure we do that in future. That was probably the biggest turning point.

“That’s on me. I allowed them to play some footy there and as I said, that’s something we need to learn from.”

‘We’re not a mile off’

So, what was his message to his team, in the sheds, after the game.

“There’s no panic stations or anything like that at the moment. I’ve been in this position before, so have most of the players. We’re not a mile off. We did a lot of good things there tonight, but we’ve got to learn to stop beating ourselves and once we do that, we’re a much better footy side.”

The Dolphins face the Broncos in the Battle of Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night, so will need to dust themselves off quickly from this weekend’s loss.

“We’ll have a look at the video. There’s going to be plenty of things that we can improve. There’s plenty of opportunities we didn’t quite take but what I said about stopping beating ourselves … that’s our starting point,” Woolf said.

“We’ve shown we’re going to be right in the contest but we’ve got to stop putting pressure on ourselves first.

“It gives us something to get excited about that’s for sure. It’s a game that everyone wants to be a part of. We’ve got to get over tonight quickly. We’re on a short turnaround. We can have a look at what we’re going to do there and get a bit excited about that contest as well.”

Dolphins Captain Tom Gilbert agrees.

“We’ve got to digest tonight and just approach the week the right way. It’s a short turnaround, it’s a big game. No doubt we’ll be up for it. We’ve just to digest tonight in the right way and be positive about how we can fix it,” Gilbert said.

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By Dominika Lis