\n
\n
\n
![\"Isaiya](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/79425198_katoa-i-250831_zm_dsc_1229_2025831144820.jpg\"\/)
\n
\n
\n Isaiya Katoa says a prayer before the Dolphins v Titans game.
\n \u00a9Zain Mohammed \/ NRL Images
\n
\n <\/p>\n
From the first game of this season to their last, the influence of former coach Wayne Bennett looms large on the finals hopes of Dolphins.<\/p>\n
Led by their halfback and captain Isaiya Katoa, the Dolphins kept their faint finals hopes alive with a close 36-30 win over a gallant Titans outfit to remain in ninth spot on the ladder, just behind the eighth-placed Roosters.<\/p>\n
Now, the team must wait and hope Bennett\u2019s Bunnies can upset their arch rivals the Roosters on Friday night before they take on Canberra in a must-win game on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t even know if he’s got my number saved; I might give him a ring during the week \u2026\u00a0 no, I’m just kidding,\u201d Katoa joked about the ironic situation.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for Katoa and his team however, the Dolphins let control of their own destiny be taken out of their own hands with regards to their finals ambitions following three back-to-back heavy losses. All were must-win games in hindsight; starting the a 64-12 loss to the Roosters in a fiery night at Suncorp Stadium in Round 23.<\/p>\n
\n 599″, “>809”, “>959″]”
\n data-eqio-prefix=”video-post-screen”
\n ref=”root”
\n ><\/p>\n
\n
\n Up Next
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n \/
\n
\n <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n Replay
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n Play Next
\n
\n
\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Isaiya Katoa Try<\/p>\n
However, with the team now back in the winner\u2019s circle, Katoa said the players knew they could lift again to produce a performance they could be proud of, drawing from their experiences at the very start of the season. Back then, they lost four games in a row, including a cyclone-affected Round 1 loss to Bennett’s South Sydney team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we didn’t lose any confidence in ourselves,\u201d Katoa said of the most recent run of outs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf anything, we just needed to clean up some stuff in defence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m happy that we could come out (against the Titans) and have a performance that we’re proud of and a performance that shows our confidence.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n Isaiya Katoa says a prayer before the Dolphins v Titans game.
\n \u00a9Zain Mohammed \/ NRL Images
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe spoke about how at the start of the season, we were in the exact same position.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don’t have to do anything special; we don’t have to do anything outside of what we’re doing, we have to trust what we’re doing \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cA big driving factor of that has been Woolfy (coach Kristian Woolf), he’s been awesome and getting us to obviously look at the learnings from every single game, but coming in with a smile and I feel ready to work hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n ![\"Wayne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/76134109_wayne-bennett-tabuai-fidow-h-celebration240831_zm_dsc_5922a_202492192142.jpg\"\/)
\n
\n
\n Wayne Bennett with Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow when he was the coach of the Dolphins.
\n \u00a9Zain Mohammed \/ NRL Images
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
As the inaugural coach of the NRL side, Bennett put his stamp on the identity of the team, something that Woolf and the squad have continued to develop. Asked what the main lessons he took from his time with Bennett, Katoa said it was all about attitude.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJust definitely not giving up, that’s something that he always harped on about, when he was here for the two years,” Katoa said.<\/p>\n
“No matter what the result is, no matter the game, no matter what’s going on in the game, never give up as a club, never let your team-mates down.<\/p>\n
“And it’s bigger than just us as a playing group. It’s more (about) our family, it’s more about our fans, and I’m happy that we could prove that (against the Titans) as well.”<\/p>\n
While they will know if they are playing for a place in the eight or simply to end their season on a high, just like last season, their finals hopes rest on the results of the final round.<\/p>\n
It is something the club can be proud out given their horror run of injuries firstly to their forward pack including season-ending ones to Tom Gilbert, Daniel Saifiti, Max Plath and later to their backs with Jack Bostock out with an ACL, while Herbie Farnworth remains sidelined with a hamstring tear.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just got to focus on ourselves; obviously we’re playing Canberra and they\u2019re a great side and I’m sure whether they play the starting side or whether they rest some players, they’re still a quality side,” Katoa said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’re not going to take anything away from Canberra. Any team that’s coached by Ricky Stuart’s going to come out there and have a performance that their club can be proud of.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo for us, we know that whatever their team is, we’re not focused on that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to focus on ourselves \u2026 a lot of learnings out of (today), we still let 20-odd points in and we’re definitely happy with the result, but there’s still a lot for us to work on as a team.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter whether we have a chance to go play finals or whether we’re just playing the last game of the season, we’re going to go out there and do our club proud and make sure that we perform and put on a performance in that our club can be proud of and our fans can be proud of as well.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the first game of this season to their last, the influence of former coach Wayne Bennett looms…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-109555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}