Wayne Bennett skips press conference after historic Dolphins fixture

Dolphins supercoach Wayne Bennett has skipped his final post-game press conference of the year after a historic victory.

Bennett is known for his tense relationship with media. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Dolphins supercoach Wayne Bennett has skipped out on his final post-game press conference of the year after a historic victory for his expansion side over the Warriors.

With the Kiwis the feel-good story of the competition and having locked in a top-four place for finals, coach Andrew Webster rested a number of key players for the trip up to Suncorp Stadium, resulting in the biggest win in the short history of the Redcliffe-based Dolphins.

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The Dolphins prevailed 34-10, capping off a remarkable debut season in first grade that saw many pundits write them off as certain wooden spooners.

The 24-point win beats the 20-point win over the Sharks in round 10.

Despite the history-making win for Bennett’s troops, the decorated general was nowhere to be seen at Lang Park after the game, with assistant coach Kristian Woolf answering questions from the press.

Bennett is known for his tense relationship with media. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Bennett has a reputation for having a tense relationship with football media, with a comically terse exchange in Perth after the Dolphins’ loss to the Knights summing up the relationship.

Among a number of particularly dry quotes, the highlight for fans of Bennett’s media presence was a simple “it’s my opinion, and I’m not interested in sharing it with you.”

Woolf is set to take over from Bennett in 2025, having previously coached St Helens in the English Super League, as well as having served as an interim head coach for the Knights in 2019.

Filling in for Bennett, Woolf earned himself plenty of admirers with his optimism.

The Dolphins’ round 1 win shocked everyone. Picture: NRL Photos

Asked whether the club were happy finishing the year with nine wins after tracking for an unthinkable finals campaign in their first year, Woolf said there was plenty more to achieve for the group.

“It’s an interesting question, probably not no,” Woolf said.

“As we showed earlier in the year, there’s a bit more to this footy team that what people expected.

“We saw that in the pre-season, we saw the skill level, we saw how hard people had worked and how well we came together as a group, that’s what we showed.

“We can be really proud of what we set up at the start of this year, and the way we played. Setting those foundations of who the Dolphins are.

“We did fall away a little bit, we can’t hide away from that, but I think we can be really proud of what we’ve done.”

The Dolphins were widely expected to finish at the bottom of the ladder, but were in the top eight all but one round in the first 14 before fading late.

But their bright start has many hoping that their injury-induced fade will be mitigated next season by some strong recruiting.

Herbie Farnworth and Tom Flegler will join from the Broncos, while Bulldogs gun Jake Averillo will move up to the Sunshine State as well next season.

Originally published as Wayne Bennett skips press conference after historic Dolphins fixture