THE DOLPHINS registered an incredible opening win as an NRL side this morning with victory over four-time NRL champions and heavy favourites going into the fixture, Sydney Roosters.
The Dolphins, led by former Great Britain coach Wayne Bennett and his assistant Kristian Woolf, have been tipped by most pundits and fans to finish bottom of the NRL ladder in 2023.
However, Bennett’s men gave that prediction a damn good thrashing with a convincing 28-18 win over Trent Robinson’s side.
The scored were locked at 12-apiece at the break with Joseph Suaalii and Drew Hutchison going over for the Roosters and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Mark Nicholls for The Dolphins in the opening forty minutes.
But, buoyed by some monster hits by former Melbourne Storm forward Felise Kaufusi, The Dolphins rallied in the second-half to score 16 unanswered points through Connolly Lemuelu and a Jamayne Isaako double before Daniel Tupou grabbed a consolation near the end.
The Dolphins boss Wayne Bennett waxed lyrical about the performance, stating: “It was special for a lot of reasons today. Certainly for Arthur (Beetson), the club and the chance they took for being in the NRL and to have thirty thousand people here.
“There’s so many winners today but the biggest winner is the game. That’s the biggest winner. One of the most difficult things is to get that win because it just settles everything down.
“That’s why I brought Kenny and Jesse (Bromwich) and Felise (Kafusi) because I knew what they brought and we all saw that today.
“That’s what we build the foundations on, we can’t build foundations on young men that don’t have a lot of football behind them, it just doesn’t work that way.”
