The Dolphins had one of their best recent halves of football on Friday night, leading the Bunnies at 20-0 at the break (the first time this season they’ve kept the opposition out in the first stanza) and preventing South Sydney from scoring until the 62^nd minute. Even then the hosts only scored two tries in a very brief window, as the red and white resurged to a 10-32 win that made it three straight following their inspiring victories over the Bulldogs and Storm, with 102 points scored to a mere 32 conceded across that galvanising trilogy.

On the other side of the Steeden this was Souths’ biggest loss and lowest score of the season, their second worst completion rate of the year at 72% and the only time in 2026 that they’ve failed to score before the sheds. Alex Johnston had finally succumbed to his PCL tear after struggling valiantly against both the Knights and Sharks, bringing Bayley Bentleigh-Hape in to start, while no sooner had Latrell Mitchell returned from his back issue than he left the park at the 72^nd minute with an injury that would rule him out of Blues eligibility.

Speaking of Origin, Jack Bostock continues to edge towards a NSW backline spot with one of the best comebacks in recent memory, building on his instrumental role in the last three games with a try, five tackle busts and 17 runs for 131 metres. Herbie Farnworth was just as good, with a try, an involvement, four offloads, 11 tackle busts and 142 metres, while Kodi Nikorima organised the attack and read the field beautifully in the first stanza; his halftime departure with a hamstring injury was arguably the key factor in the Phins’ deceleration.

Of course all this is a testament to the splendour of Kristian Woolf’s tenure as coach and tonight truly felt like a passing of the baton from Wayne Bennett, who was brilliant at getting the club on its feet, to a new era under Woolf where they can be a genuine finals threat. That said, the match opened with frustrated left edge plays for both sides, starting four minutes in with a Cam Murray offload to Keppie, who sent it in for Dylan Walker to dummy and put Tallis Duncan just outside Bostock and from there into wide open space.

Failing to find Latrell on his inside he eventually succumbed, just outside the ten, to Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, who held on for dear life until the rest of the defence arrived, and with Walker kicking poor under pressure, the pendulum swung back Redcliffe’s way. Yet the Phins were just as thwarted on the left, despite a beautiful short ball from Nikorima that created a gap for Connelly Lemuelu to send it on to the Hammer, who would have scored if not for a monster tackle from Ashton Ward – around the waist, just inside the twenty.

It was a statement of purpose from the fledgling South Sydney half and zapped the energy from the set, while supercharging the Bunnies’ defence; when Nikorima pivoted off the boot on the very next play, searching for a way to cause havoc again, Campbell Graham came in hard to force the cough-up. Kodi only needed four more minutes to seize the narrative though, shaping left at the twenty but passing it back for Farnworth to head right, dodge Murray and offload through Bronson Garlick for Morgan Knowles to drive at the chalk.

Knowles spilled it forward but with early contact from Duncan, Jamayne Isaako booted through the first two points of the night with a penalty kick. The Phins had taken a moment to heat up, and made a couple of cracks at the line, but they’d found their flow now, and consolidated with two deceptively simple and seamless tries. Nikorima began the first one with a catch-and-pass for Farnworth, who made a subliminal step in the line to clear space for Selwyn Cobbo, who caught it above his head but still managed a big right fend on Ward.

Isaako capped it off with a gorgeous curler from the sideline and eight minutes later Max Plath delivered the charge of the night, slicing between Keppie and Koloamatangi for a Goliath-on-David encounter that Jye Gray was never going to win. Four minutes after that Nikorima set up a condensed version of their last left sweep with a big double pump that forced Graham to commit, leaving Farnworth just enough room to fall over the line. The Phins had been clinical but now they felt on the verge of something truly special.

Twenty seconds before the break they almost found it, with a sequence that nearly coalesced into a sequence as iconic and myth-building as the Isaako-Bostock combo against the Dogs two weeks before. Again, it was on the left, beginning with a lovely setup from the halves – an exploratory run from Katoa, followed by a catch-and pass from Kodi, at the very moment Ward made contact, out for Farnworth, who in turn soared a ten-metre offload out to Cobbo with Latrell wrapped around his legs, as South Sydney scrambled to contain them.

Beating Euan Aitken down the sideline, Cobbo booted it diagonally back in field just as Ward downed him, and if Hammer had trusted his instinct and just landed on the footy he would have likely slid over in the wet weather. Instead, he circled it, and in that instant gave Gray just enough of a chance to get to it first and recover some pride after letting through Plath. Still, the Bunnies headed to the sheds with their first zero of the season, and would have to wait a whole further quarter of football before they finally saw some points on the board.

Whereas the first half opened with frustrated left edge plays for both teams, the third quarter was marked by right edge attacks, although this time the Phins succeeded, while the Rabbitohs remained scoreless. Thirteen minutes in Souths headed right off a six again late in the count and while Campbell initially seemed to have cleared enough space for Edward Kosi, the replay showed he’d only got it to ground with a fingertip, with precious little downward pressure in sight. Only three minutes later, the Phins had their own sweep.

Hammer played a key role in organisation this time, holding it up just long enough that Latrell couldn’t fully commit to Bostock, who easily brushed through his ankle tap and barely seemed to notice Bayleigh Bentley-Hape on the line. Finally, 62 minutes in, the Bunnies got on the board, through the two casualties of this last Phins try, proving the left edge could at least deliver in attack; a bullet ball from Latrell for BBH to cross untouched,off a nice setup from Walker. The Bunnies felt curious on the restart, searching for possibilities.

Sure enough five minutes later they scored their second and last try, which began with a Keppie twist-and-spin into the ten and a rapid play-the-ball that set up Ward for his best attacking play of the night. Dummying in both hands, he sent Donoghoe sliding out to the wing, and the big forward was too bulky to get in fast enough to prevent Ward offloading back to Aitken, who easily beat the Hammer at the death. BBH slotted through his only conversion of the evening and a few minutes later Latrell was off, replaced by Dufty. 

Still the Phins had the last word, with two pointscoring forays of their own in the final two minutes. Without a mad Hammer run a Dolphins game never feels complete, and he had an instant addition to the highlights reel here, while making up for letting Aitken through. Receiving the footy thirty metres out on the left, he ended up scoring beside the right padding, off an oblique trajectory that saw him take a no-looker from Donoghoe, the other casualty of the Aitken try, briefly consider a short side play, then pivot off the left boot.

Easily eluding Graham and Ward, he darted in field, where Murray slid to ground, and Dufty was also too slow, before the Phins again came agonisingly close to scoring in the last twenty seconds, when Bostock rose from a Gray tackle, headed in field, and toe it twice down the middle. Time slowed down, everything hung in the balance, the Phins looked like they might wrest order from chaos, until Walker pounced on the ball, but not without an early tackle penalty for Murray that saw Isaako boot through two to finish the game off.

A great win for the Phins, then, although they’ll have a job on their hands next Thursday when they face a Raiders outfit rested from Magic Round, especially with Flegler, Plath, Hammer and Cobbo at Maroons camp and Nikorima, who had made such an impact in the first half, still nursing his hamstring injury. Meanwhile the Bunnies need to work hard to retain their fifth ranked spot against a North Queensland outfit hungry to reach the top four; with Latrell, Graham and Murray out, Johnston’s return will be an essential asset.