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Four seasons into their NRL life, the Dolphins are 80 minutes from a Grand Final. The way they got there — coming from behind to beat the Warriors 26–16 in Auckland in their first finals appearance — told a story that began long before Saturday.
There were plenty of moments at Go Media Stadium when the night could have got away from them.
Tom Flegler was gone inside the opening 10 minutes with concussion. Penalties piled up, tempers flared and players went to the sin bin. By the 52nd minute the Warriors led 16–8, with 10 of those points coming from penalty goals, and the Dolphins had spent long stretches fighting the game rather than playing it.
READ: Dolphins Beat Warriors 26–16 to Reach Preliminary Final
Isaiya Katoa had seen that movie before. He went straight back to Round 23 last year after the final siren, recalling the ugly afternoon against the Roosters when an early melee and four sin-binnings accompanied a 64–12 defeat.
“One thing for us is we took a lot of lessons out of last year,” Katoa said. “We just never were able to go back and play our footy.”
In Auckland, with another game becoming heated, Katoa’s message to his teammates was simple: “Winning a fight or winning a push and shove on the field is not going to win the result at the end of the game.”
This time they found their way back to the football.
Some Lessons Take a Couple of Seasons
That ability to regain control hasn’t always been there.
The Dolphins arrived in 2023 capable of giving established sides plenty of trouble and showed it again during 2024. The harder part was sustaining their best football, both through individual matches and across an entire season.
Former foundation forward Mark Nicholls put it plainly before the 2025 campaign. “We’ve been there early in the year and then fell away at the back end,” he said.
Nicholls also remembered “plenty of games” when the Dolphins had been in front at half-time but “just couldn’t get the job done”.
Both of those first two seasons ended before the finals. The 2025 Roosters loss provided another harsh lesson, one Katoa was still drawing on more than a year later.
Auckland gave him the chance to use it.
Then Katoa Changed the Game
Eight points down, the Dolphins didn’t suddenly produce some elaborate rescue act. They started playing the game where they wanted it played.
Katoa’s long kicking turned the Warriors around and the field began to open. Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Herbie Farnworth combined spectacularly to put the Dolphins ahead, before Jack Bostock’s late try finally broke the resistance.
From 16–8 down after 52 minutes, they scored the last 18 points. The Warriors didn’t score again.
Kristian Woolf had watched that sort of resolve develop during the run home. “The bravery they showed under pressure, they’ve done that so many times at the back end of the season,” he said afterwards. “They’re in this position for a reason.”
For once, the Dolphins don’t have to immediately prove him right again. Their reward for winning in Auckland is a weekend away from the collisions while the rest of the finals field gets smaller.
READ: Four Years to September: How the Dolphins Built Their First Finals Team
Suncorp Is Waiting
Whoever survives to meet them will arrive in Brisbane with their season on the line. So will the Dolphins.
There is no history to fall back on from here. They have never played a preliminary final, much less a Grand Final, and the hardest 80 minutes of their season may still be ahead.
What they do have is four seasons of experience packed into a remarkably short life as an NRL club — the fast starts, the games that slipped away, two Septembers spent watching and the occasional afternoon they would rather forget.
Saturday in Auckland belongs on the other side of that ledger.
The Dolphins went there for their first final, fell eight points behind and found a way out. Now they come home, one win from a Grand Final.
Published 15-September-2026
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