Dolphins vs North Queensland Cowboys, result, score, stats, video, teams, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, Tom Dearden

Payten confirms Taulagi injury | 05:53

The Dolphins picked up from where they left off in the second half, scoring two tries in six minutes. Harrison Graham burrowed over from dummy-half before Max Feagai found space and set up Jamayne Isaako.

The Cowboys finally showed signs of life when Taulagi scored in the corner — his second try of the night — but he was injured in the process and ended up limping from the field.

Tries to Drinkwater and Dearden followed to instil some belief back into the Cowboys.

But Averillo crossed in the 75th minute before Isaiya Katoa put the icing on the result with a field goal.

PUT A LINE THROUGH COWBOYS

The Cowboys’ season is over.

That is the belief of Fox League’s expert analyst Greg Alexander, who declared pre-game that the Cowboys can kiss finals goodbye if they don’t beat the Dolphins.

“If they lose tonight they could find themselves seven points outside of the eight,” he said.

“I know they’ve got a pretty good run home and they do have the bye in the last round, but if they don’t win tonight and fall seven points out of the eight, I’m willing to say the Cowboys won’t play finals this year.”

There’s no doubt the Cowboys would’ve been treating Thursday’s clash as a must-win too, but they looked miles away from a team desperate to keep their season alive in the first 50 minutes of the game when they conceded six tries.

“The Cowboys’ defence is nowhere near the standard it should be,” expert analyst Cooper Cronk said after a dismal first half.

Michael Ennis added at the start of the second half: “Just watching that right edge of the Cowboys that was torn to shreds in the first half, again you can just see them on a completely different page… you’ve got blokes ahead of the line, some are retreating, some are passive, some are aggressive.”

The momentum finally swung in the 55th minute and the Cowboys ran in three tries to instil some belief… but it was too little, too late.

The Cowboys have now lost three straight losses and making matters worse is that star winger Murray Taulagi suffered a hamstring injury.

Fletch and Hindy play Rugby League 26! | 08:10

DOLPHINS FIND THEIR NIKORIMA ANSWER

Kodi Nikorima won’t return from a hamstring injury until Round 24 the earliest but it looks like the Dolphins will be just fine without him following an impressive performance from fill-in five-eighth Jake Averillo.

Sean O’Sullivan got the first opportunity to partner Isaiya Katoa in the halves last week but he was dropped this week with Averillo moving from the wing to fill the void instead.

The 24-year-old made fans sit up and take notice in the 20th minute when he scored a stunning 95-metre try. He also had a hand in a couple more tries in the first half, before scoring his second of the night in the 75th minute.

“I really like it,” expert analyst Michael Ennis said when asked about the change.

“Obviously unfortunate for (Sean) O’Sullivan not to be there, who has been waiting patiently and playing good footy in the Queensland Cup. But just the speed and running game of Averillo has really changed that left edge.”

Averillo is no stranger to five-eighth — it was the position he was developed in when coming though at the Bulldogs. He had played 18 games there prior to Thursday night, including the final two rounds of last season.

He’s become a bit of a Mr. Fix It for the Dolphins, slotting in at five-eighth, fullback, wing and centre.

Averillo seemed to complement Katoa well too with the young halfback also having a night out, finishing with a try assist and five linebreak assists.

DOLPHINS’ LETHAL LEFT EDGE ON DISPLAY

The Dolphins may just have one of the most lethal left edges in the competition – well, at least it looked that away against the Cowboys’ dismal defence.

They went into the game with already 40 tries scored from their left edge – as opposed to 19 on the right – and added four more on Thursday night. There would’ve been a fifth too had Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow not butchered a sure-try in the first half with a knock-on.

While the Dolphins did switch off for 20 minutes of the second half and were in danger of throwing away a 28-point lead, what they did produce in the first 50 minutes was something that should make opposition teams a little nervous.

The likes of Jake Averillo, Herbie Farnworth, Tabuai-Fidow and Connelly Lemuelu were “on fire” according to Cooper Cronk, with the latter producing arguably his best game to date.

Lemuelu finished with two try assists, two linebreaks, a linebreak assist, six tackle busts and 20 runs for 223 metres. Averillo, Farnworth and Tabuai-Fidow all finished with over 120 metres each too.