{"id":847964,"date":"2026-08-08T12:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/847964\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T12:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:30:14","slug":"nrl-news-2026-hamiso-tabuai-fidow-inspires-dolphins-to-remarkable-win-over-brisbane-broncos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/847964\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow inspires Dolphins to remarkable win over Brisbane Broncos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/person\/hamiso-tabuai-fidow-6fz2\" class=\"sc-eRZcwA dNXoqI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow<\/a> beat <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/person\/reece-walsh-2698\" class=\"sc-eRZcwA dNXoqI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Reece Walsh<\/a> in a box-office aerial contest to inspire his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/topic\/the-dolphins-26f4\" class=\"sc-eRZcwA dNXoqI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dolphins<\/a> team to a remarkable comeback win on Saturday night, as the Redcliffe outfit locked in their inaugural finals berth. <\/p>\n<p>Led by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/person\/ezra-mam-6gny\" class=\"sc-eRZcwA dNXoqI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ezra Mam<\/a>, who snared a first-half hat-trick, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/brisbane-broncos\" class=\"sc-eRZcwA dNXoqI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Broncos<\/a> shot out to a 24-0 lead in the first 22 minutes.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/e79368d0378bd51e7e90a97bc1ad40eacca7b16e258ba89c04e1e5de414ff3ff.jpeg\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">Hamiso Tabuai-FIdow celebrates his crucial late try.\u00a0Bradley Kanaris\/Getty Images.<\/p>\n<p>But the Dolphins, whose first-half defence was labelled \u201cpaper-thin\u201d by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/person\/michael-ennis-262d\" class=\"sc-eRZcwA dNXoqI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Ennis<\/a> on Fox League, only trailed 30-24 at half-time.<\/p>\n<p>And after Connelly Lemuelu crossed in the 51st minute and Jamayne Isaako converted, the scores were locked up at 30 apiece.<\/p>\n<p>Walsh knocked over a penalty goal on the hour mark to regain the lead for the Broncos, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/person\/isaiya-katoa-6hbs\" class=\"sc-eRZcwA dNXoqI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Isaiya Katoa<\/a> and Tabuai-Fidow linked up in the 68th minute to put the Dolphins in the lead for the first time in the game.<\/p>\n<p>Katoa put up a high ball on the right edge deep in Broncos territory and Tabuai-Fidow weaved his magic, leaping above Walsh and plucking the ball from the Brisbane sky.<\/p>\n<p>The Dolphins magician came down with the ball five metres short of the try line, then lurched forward and, with Broncos defenders trying desperately to stop him, reached out and slammed the ball down.<\/p>\n<p>When <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/person\/selwyn-cobbo-6fml\" class=\"sc-eRZcwA dNXoqI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Selwyn Cobbo<\/a> bagged his own try in the 72nd minute, the Dolphins led by more than a converted try.<\/p>\n<p>The Broncos\u2019 younger brothers then held on over a frantic final eight minutes to win 40-32.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019ve been working on,\u201d Tabuai-Fidow said of the aerial ball he won against Walsh.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can get over a couple of fullbacks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere, I looked at \u2018Izzy\u2019 and just said to isolate me, and I got the ball in the air and got over the try line. It was pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Broncos were on the wrong end of controversy.<\/p>\n<p>With just over 20 minutes remaining, Billy Walters took a dart from dummy-half and almost scored.<\/p>\n<p>He was tackled by Kurt Donoghoe, who had come from an off-side position to tackle him.<\/p>\n<p>Despite that, the Broncos were not awarded a penalty try and Donoghoe was not sin-binned.<\/p>\n<p>The Broncos were only awarded a penalty, and that was because Herbie Farnworth had taken out Mam. Donoghoe went unpunished.<\/p>\n<p>If Brisbane had been awarded a penalty try, they could have led 38-30 with about 20 minutes to play.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, they only led 32-30.<\/p>\n<p>The Broncos must stomach the bitter reality that they will finish round 23 in second-last on the ladder, ahead of only the Dragons.<\/p>\n<p>Wests Tigers have leapfrogged the Broncos, courtesy of the two points they received for a bye.<\/p>\n<p>The Dolphins, on the other hand, are finals-bound for the first time in only their fourth season in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\" class=\"sc-eRZcwA dNXoqI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m frustrated, and so are they [the players],\u201d said Broncos coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/person\/michael-maguire-262i\" class=\"sc-eRZcwA dNXoqI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Maguire<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t leak or let in that many tries to put yourselves into a position to be able to really contend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maguire, a two-time NRL premiership-winning coach, said his side\u2019s place on the ladder was hard to take.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt hurts, obviously,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd is it something that I thought we\u2019d be going through? No.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow beat Reece Walsh in a box-office aerial contest to inspire his Dolphins team to a remarkable&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-847964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847964","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=847964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}