Magic Round: Dolphins’ ‘good, bad, ugly’ win

Head Coach Wayne Bennett described the Dolphins’ Magic Round win as ‘good, bad and ugly’, but one highlight was the emphatic return of star fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow.

He scored two second-half tries in the Dolphins’ 24-12 win over Wests Tigers in the final game of the NRL’s Magic Round at Suncorp Stadium tonight.

Any worries about the hamstring injury that had sidelined the flying fullback were allayed after his first long-range try.

Of Tabuai-Fidow’s return Bennett said: “He’s fit, he’s great and has great anticipation and he backs it up with his speed … exciting to watch”.

Captain Jesse Bromwich said it was great to have him back and at full strength.

“You feel for someone like Trai Fuller who’s done a great job for us those weeks that Hammer was out, but Hammer came straight in today … he’s our fullback and did a great job,” he said.

The Dolphins were lucky to win with a completion rate of just 68 per cent and more than twice the number of errors made by the Tigers.

Bennett said it was good to get the two points, the way they played with the football was bad and it was ugly ‘being out there and looking like we weren’t interested’.

When asked how the Dolphins will prepare for the Warriors in Auckland next weekend, given their performance tonight Bennett simply said: “we’ll be right”.

He did not elaborate on how he would work with the team to reduce the error count and be ready for a tough encounter against the side which beat the Panthers by two points tonight.

“You know you’re going to have some of those days and those (ugly win) moments and we had that today. We wouldn’t have won that game last year … because we couldn’t defend as good as we can now,” Bennett said.

The GOAT Mark Nicholls scored his third try for the season tonight and Jack Bostock also crossed for the Dolphins.

See the photo gallery here

Photos by Dominika Lis