Wayne Bennett's 900th game as an NRL coach finished with a victory as the Dolphins were ruthless in their 36-16 victory over the highly fancied Cronulla Sharks in the middle game of Saturday's triple header at Suncorp Stadium.
The Sharks started with intent and looked likely to score when Ronaldo Mulitalo burst through on a kick return. But, like he has so often this season he bombed it at the final moment. That proved costly for the ‘home' team. Following a ruck infringement, the Dolphins broke through. Jeremy Marshall-King breaks through out of dummy half and split them before linking up with Isaiya Katoa to score his first NRL try and the Dolphins had a 6-0 lead.
Eleven minutes later, the Dolphins were able to exploit the right edge of the Sharks who looked lost at sea. Euan Aitken beat Jesse Ramien all ends up and found the flying Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow to cross for their second try of the opening quarter hour.
It was going from bad to worse for the Sharks. A penalty whilst in possession of the football set the Dolphins on their way to their third try, and a new cult hero was born. It was a great shift from the Dolphins with Isaiya Katoa showing great ball playing to get the ball to the debutant Valynce Te Whare and he showed so much strength and power to get to the line. Cronulla were simply defending for their lives and it was getting worse by the minute. Back-to-back penalties combined with a set restart set the Phins up for more success. In the ocean, it happens the other way around with Sharks mauling Dolphins. But tonight, the Dolphins are mauling the Sharks. Connelly Lemuelu charged on the ball and crashed through the defence and did enough to get the ball down and they led by 24-0.
From another Sharks error. A late offload from Herman Ese'ese to Jarrod Wallace provided the spark before an ensuing switch down the blind side saw Katoa and Nikorima combine with Tesi Niu and it's 28-0. Isaako nailed the conversion from touch and it was 30-0 with six to go in the first half.
Cronulla were able to capitalise on their lone first-half chances. It was a great shift involving Matt Moylan and Nicho Hynes. Talakai gets revenge on Te Whare and Mulitalo wasn't going to butcher that one and it was the beginning of what would be a long road back. The Sharks collected a second on the stroke of half-time as they went down the left again. Moylan, Hynes combined with Will Kennedy to send Talakai away before getting the ball back on the inside to Kennedy and it was 30-10 at the break.
Any hope of a Sharks comeback was extinguished early in the second half with the new cult hero Te Whare crossed out wide for his second. The Sharks all stood off Anthony Milford as he got through some paper-thin defence and linked up with Te Whare. Cronulla left their second-half scoring raid way too late and it was Teig Wilton cracking the line with just 14 minutes to go after great second-phase play which saw Moylan find his edge backrower.