2026 Finals

[Equaliser]

Gilbert is a great leading foil to Izzy. There was a highlight of demeitric making a stomping run through our line making tackles, but Gilbert slips off his hips, demetric runs another 5 metres into stone and donga, jmk adds to the tackle, but he only goes down when Gilbert comes from behind again with his shark eyes full of fury. He may not be as fast as he once was but in the middle he is still so fit and intent, and gives it to the opposition when things kick off. I really am impressed with his year.

He's been a revelation with the new rules which make smaller props possible.

 

[Blockade]

The Dolphins will host the winner of Roosters/Cronulla in two weeks time. That will be a tough game regardless of who they play, but every match is tough this time of year. The Roosters will be faves next weekend, but Cronulla are certainly capable of toppling them.

As for the other game, NZ will be feeling the pressure and if Ponga continues his sublime form, the Warriors will be bounced out in straight sets. From this far out, it's looking like a Dolphins/Penrith GF. But, anything can happen and probably will.

 

[Liverbird with Phins up]

The Dolphins will host the winner of Roosters/Cronulla in two weeks time. That will be a tough game regardless of who they play, but every match is tough this time of year. The Roosters will be faves next weekend, but Cronulla are certainly capable of toppling them.

As for the other game, NZ will be feeling the pressure and if Ponga continues his sublime form, the Warriors will be bounced out in straight sets. From this far out, it's looking like a Dolphins/Penrith GF. But, anything can happen and probably will.

Im hoping for extra time, a few injures and a couple off to the judicary

 

[SwoopAE]

We have the benefit of going in full strength here and the risk of whoever we're playing getting injuries or suspensions next week.

Some things we have to sweat are an early Walker return (they're trying to) but he probably won't be 100%, Trindall and Yeo are both clearly playing hurt at the moment and teams will be fine with risking semi injured players given the time of year.

Grand final wise it's a pity Penrith get a week off but for us it's better we avoid them to the grand final anyway, their defence is great but we've seen they have issues in attack and if Alamoti isn't back we can run an insane amount of traffic at Talagi as he is a terrible defender. Otherwise we aim to do what Brisbane did in 2024 and just turn it into a shootout with gritty defence against their iffy attack and our 1-7 capable of scoring 24+ points minus the choking at the end part which the Broncos did

Cleary at some risk of being suspended for the Prelim which might give the Wahs or Knights a chance plus seemed to be carrying an injury late

This is not the Penrith team of 2022 they are very beatable if we are good enough and play our best they are the worst they have been at any point in their dominant era

First things first Roosters or Sharks

Expect Roosters to win it, but who knows. Hopefully they have an absolute war next week and the winner is softened up for us.

On the other side of the bracket I guess we are hoping for a Cleary suspension to give whoever is playing Penrith a better chance but there is no way they will suspend him for a prelim and nor should they it's fine to bin him but it's pretty soft to suspend a player for mistiming a run with no ill intent.

 

[yonathonjoung]

We have the benefit of going in full strength here and the risk of whoever we're playing getting injuries or suspensions next week.

Some things we have to sweat are an early Walker return (they're trying to) but he probably won't be 100%, Trindall and Yeo are both clearly playing hurt at the moment and teams will be fine with risking semi injured players given the time of year.

Grand final wise it's a pity Penrith get a week off but for us it's better we avoid them to the grand final anyway, their defence is great but we've seen they have issues in attack and if Alamoti isn't back we can run an insane amount of traffic at Talagi as he is a terrible defender. Otherwise we aim to do what Brisbane did in 2024 and just turn it into a shootout with gritty defence against their iffy attack and our 1-7 capable of scoring 24+ points minus the choking at the end part which the Broncos did

Cleary at some risk of being suspended for the Prelim which might give the Wahs or Knights a chance plus seemed to be carrying an injury late

This is not the Penrith team of 2022 they are very beatable if we are good enough and play our best they are the worst they have been at any point in their dominant era

First things first Roosters or Sharks

Expect Roosters to win it, but who knows. Hopefully they have an absolute war next week and the winner is softened up for us.

On the other side of the bracket I guess we are hoping for a Cleary suspension to give whoever is playing Penrith a better chance but there is no way they will suspend him for a prelim and nor should they it's fine to bin him but it's pretty soft to suspend a player for mistiming a run with no ill intent.

In a perfect world the wahs go the long way and beat the Panthers and we belt whoever comes out of the semis. That is with the memory that either roosters or sharks is a grudge match of sorts for us even with our short history. I suspect sharks might beat roosters but they'll fall apart after that. The roosters clock is running out of tick as well.

Other thing I keep thinking is the motivation for our guys. To think they are in their heads with the possibility of winning the clubs first premiership I genuinely think we will only see better and better performances this year. If we meet the Panthers in the gf I will bet in the 70th minute our boys are gunning it harder than the panthers no matter the score.

 

[midlands hobo]

Anyone worried about the judiciary this week? I am.

Also any news on Clearys foot? hopefully he'll miss the final.

 

[mr_c]

Anyone worried about the judiciary this week? I am.

Also any news on Clearys foot? hopefully he'll miss the final.

they just get fines

 

[Josh]

Craddock in the Courier Mail writes:

The dazzling Dolphins have blown their cover.
They are not a team on the rise any more. They are a magnificently well-balanced, harmonious and supremely fit team who can win a premiership.

Then he goes on with his wishful thinking that it's now or never for several paragraphs. He is a mad Broncos fan.

 

[mr_c]

why should we actually give rats what sports teams journos support

 

[SwoopAE]

The whole now or never stuff is ridiculous given next season we haven't lost anyone of any importance beyond isaakos goal kicking when his play can be replaced by Naufahu no worries and Nikorima being replaced by Williams who is likely to be good in the role

We need to keep the side together for 2028 and beyond though but the window is wide open now and next year at a minimum and likely longer if we keep most of the side together

Good to see naufahu re signing may it be the first of many contract extensions

 

[yonathonjoung]

The whole now or never stuff is ridiculous given next season we haven't lost anyone of any importance beyond isaakos goal kicking when his play can be replaced by Naufahu no worries and Nikorima being replaced by Williams who is likely to be good in the role

We need to keep the side together for 2028 and beyond though but the window is wide open now and next year at a minimum and likely longer if we keep most of the side together

Good to see naufahu re signing may it be the first of many contract extensions

Naufahu was pretty much locked in as soon as Isaako was fine, and to the club they probably had plans to do it this way anyway.

 

[Dolph]

Anyone worried about the judiciary this week? I am.

Also any news on Clearys foot? hopefully he'll miss the final.

I was surprised Lemuelu got off. Thought he may have been looking at a week.

 

[Red]

Naufahu was pretty much locked in as soon as Isaako was fine, and to the club they probably had plans to do it this way anyway.

Honestly, when Isaako was signed I was thinking, "it's going to be a long year" or something to that end. But how good has he been? Still had a couple of bad games defensively but his biggest issue previously was the number of mistakes he made. Now he hardly has a mistake in his game at all, even in high pressure, difficult situations.

 

[SwoopAE]

Yeah his late-career improvement was absolutely crazy unlike most outside backs who just don't improve after 25ish

Isaako went from decent at the Broncos when he was young to quite bad at the Broncos as time went on to one of the worst outside backs in the NRL at the Titans to getting even worse to the point he was playing QCup and not even doing particularly well in QCup back to quickly being decent at the Dolphins and steadily improving from decent back to elite and taking his kicking from 'it's pretty but not actually that effective' like Zac Lomax to 'wow he is easily the best goalkicker in the NRL' over the course of a few seasons. It's honestly insane how good our entire backline is and Isaako's improvement has been a decent part of that.

It's a pity to lose him especially because of the goalkicking but the improvement he's shown has been immense, hopefully he can win a comp here before he heads to the Storm to not win any more comps because they're cooked at the moment and hopefully he's being paid well by the Storm (not sure of the details of his contract but presumably it's his last big money contract at his age)

I get why we let him move on though he's getting older and at the end of the day with Naufahu coming through and being cheaper and us having a cap crunch, the other four outside backs are simply more important to the team and younger if we can keep them all - same reason we have to let Averillo go even though it's fantastic to have him for depth and he'd start on most teams in the NRL, we just need the cap space to keep the core of the team together.

His goalkicking does make a substantial difference but Katoa has the entire off season to practice and hopefully can get to an elite level by the start of next season, first things first though, the focus right now is winning the comp, not roster move, future goalkicking etc the players have made the right moves by saying let's win the comp first then there's plenty of time to negotiate contracts before November.