2024 NRL Round 9 Cowboys v Dolphins – COWBOYS 26 DOLPHINS 28. The one-minute match report – giving you the bare minimum NRL round up in the bare minimum of time.
The Dolphins return to the top four of the NRL with a nail biting win over North Queensland in Townsville, where Valentine Holmes missed a late chance to draw the game with a conversion.
The match didn’t start well for the Dolphins with North Queensland scoring twice in the first six minutes through Kyle Feldt and Reuben Cotter, the latter of those tries particularly soft as the Cowboys forward dragged the Dolphins over the line with him.
Eventually the Dolphins got some ball and were quite clinical in attack with their rare first half chances in the Cowboys 20 metre zone. Tries on either side of the field to Jamayne Isaako and Tesi Niu saw the Dolphins in front after 25 minutes, Isaako’s sideline conversions key to the result later.
Teams traded tries to half time, but the one to the Cowboy’s Sam McIntyre just before the break felt notable as the Dolphins arguably deserved the half time lead.
Dolphins skipped ahead when Jamayne Isaako got his third try of the night in the 47th minute, but the game became a bit scrappy after that. It didn’t stop Jake Averillo pouncing on a grubber somehow and extending the lead with 13 minutes to go, to set up a nervous finish as the Dolphins tried to hang onto their six point lead.
The Cowboys did eventually score through Jeremiah Nanai with three minutes to go, and Valentine Holmes had a reasonably difficult kick to even up the scores and missed to give the Dolphins their fifth win of the season from eight games.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Although it is hard to see a talent like Sean O’Sullivan plying his trade in reserve grade, you can’t argue about the form of the current halves pairing of Kodi Nikorima and Isaiya Katoa. Nikorima ended the night with three try assists and two line break assists with Katoa usually throwing the pass to Nikorima to set up the play. Katoa’s kicking game is progressing well too, although we’d like to see the bomb not used so much on the final play. And the first half was better in attack close to the Cowboy’s line than the first.
An off night for errors for Trai Fuller, but he is still a livewire in attack and topped the Dolphins players for Run Metres and Tackle Breaks. One wonders if a way can be found to keep him in the team once the Hammer returns from injury. At a minimum, Fuller will be good backup for the Origin period.
Shout out to the bench, who as ever gave plenty. Josh Kerr would arguably be up there for the most impact off the bench in the NRL this season, and Ray Stone gave everything, as always. Mark Nicholls too is a warrior that every team needs, and a shame he didn’t throw a big dummy and go for glory himself when he made a line break in the second half. Kurt Donoghue who is the versatile player the team needs too, and he filled in admirably for Tesi Niu after yet another injury.
Overall it was a great win, especially in the context of injuries. Every team has injury concerns, but few would be missing four of the best five players like the Dolphins. With Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, Herbie Farnworth, Tom Flegler and Tom Gilbert currently out, and potentially Tesi Niu joining them it has tested the squad depth, and so far it is going OK. Depending on availability and injuries, maybe it’s a chance for Valynce Te Whare to show his worth against Manly next week.
It’s also a good win under the circumstances of the current head coach Wayne Bennett being linked to the Souths job after their sacking of Jason Demetriou during the week. It bodes well that the Dolphins can ignore the noise as the curse of Post Bennett Blues looms for 2025.
Courtesy of nrl.com
BEST OF STATS
The Dolphins are now 4/4 for away games against Queensland sides that aren’t the Broncos.
Dolphins have won more games away than home this season.
Only one Dolphins player featured in the top seven for Post Contact Metres – Jesse Bromwich.
North Queensland have lost their last two Saturday games by 28-26, 26-20 and 27-20.
The Dolphins have now won more games than the South Queensland Crushers did in their entire three season history, to compare the two last Brisbane expansion clubs and the extra level the Dolphins have brought on and off the field.
