Woolf: ‘We’re back to being us’

Photos: Courtesy of NRL Imagery.

A courageous effort by the injury-ravaged Dolphins wasn’t enough to win tonight’s Battle for Brisbane against the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium.

The Dolphins matched their cross-city rivals in the first half, with the scores locked at 14-14 at halftime, and came out swinging with two tries and a penalty goal inside the first 10 minutes of the second but could not stop the Broncos attack from there. They lost the game 38-28.

Trai Fuller inspired an energetic performance from the Dolphins, scoring a try in the 40^th minute and looking dangerous every time he had the ball.

There were tries also to Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, Jake Averillo and Jeremy Marshall-King. Jamayne Isaako kicked four from four goals.

The contest delivered for the crowd of more than 44,000, with the Dolphins putting up a fight right up until full time.

While the result is not what they needed to stay in the top eight, it was a more promising display by the boys from Redcliffe who bounced back after a 64-12 defeat last week.

Head Coach Kristian Woolf said his side had a “real crack” and gave themselves a chance to win the game, leading 28-14 before a 40/20 kick by Reece Walsh turned momentum the Broncos’ way.

“We put ourselves in a position where we probably could have won the game and that’s why it becomes disappointing. I’m very happy with the effort,” Woolf said.

“I thought we turned up. A lot of people didn’t give us a chance, but we gave ourselves a chance.”

He conceded it was the one that got away.

“With that score line, we gave ourselves a chance … there was still plenty of footy to go but we put ourselves in a position to have a real crack and give ourselves a chance,” Woolf said.

“There was some good footy from them. They took their chances … there were a couple of things that we just didn’t work hard enough on. At the end, we had a couple of opportunities too and we just didn’t quite ice them.”

Captain Isaiya Katoa said, despite the loss, he still had confidence his team could make the finals.

“Yes, definitely. I’m confident in the group. I thought we had glimpses of us being ourselves and backing our footy (tonight). I just thought we just didn’t defend properly, didn’t defend well enough,” Katoa said

“As a team, and individually, I think we need to be better defensively. If we’re being fair dinkum about making finals, we need to be better defensively.”

Woolf agreed: “We’re not out of that (finals) yet. We’ve just got to get over tonight … we did a lot of good things tonight particularly on the back of last week.

“We’re back to being us and looking like us a lot more both with and without the ball. So, we’ve just got to worry about next week.

“There’s no point worrying about what might happen in four weeks, let’s just worry about next week.”

The Dolphins face the Sea Eagles in Sydney next round before taking on the Titans at Suncorp Stadium and the Raiders at Redcliffe’s Kayo Stadium.