NRL round 6: Wayne Bennett takes swipe at Broncos, Phil Gould weighs in on super coach
Wayne Bennett has had a crack at the Broncos while Phil Gould has weighed in on the super coach as the Dolphins continue to shock the NRL.
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Phil Gould has labelled his long-time foe Wayne Bennett a “genius” as the Dolphins super coach took a swipe at the Broncos over the treatment of his hat-trick hero Jamayne Isaako.
Bennett’s Dolphins are continuing to shock the league with the NRL’s newest franchise claiming another big-name scalp on Friday night with a brilliant 32-22 boilover of the Cowboys in Townsville.
The NRL’s 17th team will finish the weekend in the top five with a 4-2 record and their latest upset was inspired by Isaako, the Broncos discard stunning the Cowboys with three tries in the opening 30 minutes.
The highlight of the win was Isaako’s second try in the 14th minute, the Dolphins winger resembling Israel Folau as he soared above the Cowboys to catch an Isaiya Katoa cross-kick and touch down in a split-second of magic.
Handed his NRL debut by Bennett at the Broncos in 2017, Isaako scored 24 tries from 77 games at Red Hill, but was released to the Titans last year after falling out of favour with current Brisbane coach Kevin Walters.
Thrown a lifeline by Redcliffe, Isaako is now one of the form players of the 2023 competition and Bennett lauded the 26-year-old’s fightback from Red Hill reject to Dolphins dynamo.
“Jamayne wasn’t wanted at the Broncos and he went to the (Titans) and they didn’t want him in the end either,” Bennett said.
“But I have always had great belief in him.
“I have coached him at the Broncos since he was a kid.
“He came to the Broncos because of me, he was playing schoolboys for Cronulla at the time and it is magnificent to see him playing the way I know he can play.
“Jamayne has got great confidence playing with these (Dolphins) guys.”
Isaako will go into round 7’s clash against Souths as the NRL’s leading pointscorer (72) and equal leading tryscorer with Dolphins teammate Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, both of whom have eight tries from six games.
The former Kiwi Test winger has forged a lethal back-three alliance with Tabuai-Fidow and says Bennett is the master of building team morale.
“Every time we play and when we go to training, Wayne just says we’re a 30-man squad,” Isaako said after his tryscoring heroics.
“It takes commitment from every single one of us to put in the work.
“He said to us before we ran out (against the Cowboys) it will take commitment and effort and we put that in to come away with the win.”
Bennett’s former State of Origin rival Gould said the Dolphins’ extraordinary start in their foundation season underlines why the 73-year-old is the arguably the greatest coach in rugby league history.
“You have to stop being surprised (by the Dolphins’ performances),” former NSW master coach Gould said on Channel 9.
“Wayne Bennett is a genius.
“You can’t get these performances without a togetherness, without a connection, without resilience and all of these things have nothing to do with talent.
“What Wayne Bennett has been able to do is instill it in this group in one off-season, in a new club, and that’s what’s winning them the big moments in games.
“Their game has been pressure-tested for six weeks and they keep coming out the other side as winners.
“To pull this together in one off-season and have the group playing with such commitment to a cause is why Wayne Bennett is one of the greatest of all-time.”
HAMMER RETURNS TO HAUNT THE COWBOYS
By Nic Darveniza
Wayne Bennett’s counter-punching Dolphins marched into North Queensland and quelled a Cowboys fightback to claim their first win over Queensland opposition.
Rugby league’s newest kids on the block almost delivered a first half knockout by punishing six Cowboy errors for five tries.
North Queensland refused to go down and with a three-try run of their own pushed the fixture to a knife’s edge.
Cairns product Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, the young gun granted a release after North Queensland chose rival Scott Drinkwater for a multimillion dollar contract extension, delivered the final strike to sink his former club in a two-try performance.
The Dolphins were down to a second-string halves pairing of 18-year-old Isaiah Katoa and journeyman Kodi Nikorima, without international forwards Felise Kaufusi and Jesse Bromwich but showed the fight that has characterised the club’s rise to the NRL.
“It was a great night for rugby league,” supercoach Bennett said.
“With all the ball the Cowboys had that could have been a six or seven try romp for them but we kept turning up in defence.
“In the end we got a bit of ball and good field position and clinched the game.”
Winger Jamayne Isaako, cast out from both Brisbane and Gold Coast, crossed three times in the opening half.
The Dolphins winger and fullback have combined for 16 of the club’s first 25 tries in the top grade.
Both teams spent 10 minutes with men in the bin in a frenetic opening half that saw seven tries scored.
Cowboys backrower Coen Hess was sent for a late shot on rookie No.7 Isaiah Katoa in the 27th and had only just returned to the field when Dolphins five-eighth Kodi Nikorima was sent for his own spell and placed on report for dumping Riley Price on his head.
Prop Jarrod Wallace showed Category I concussion symptoms and did not return for the second half.
OLD WEST SHOWDOWN
This town wasn’t big enough for the both of them.
In a scene out of an old Western, former Cowboys Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow rolled back into Townsville with a new posse of teammates and wasted no time showing the North Queensland faithful just what they missed.
The ‘Hammer’ Tabuai-Fidow delivered the final pass for Isaako’s first before joining the flying winger on the scoreboard with a remarkable solo effort, busting out of four tackles to dot down between the sticks in the 23rd minute.
.@dolphinsnrl fullback, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow becomes the first player in Premiership history to score in each of a team’s opening six games#NRLCowboysDolphins
— Fox Sports Lab (@FoxSportsLab) April 7, 2023
His final try, with teammates and opponents alike gasping for breaths, was pure class.
It was far from the only highlight for former Cowboys on the night.
Tom Gilbert split former teammates Jamayne Taunoa-Brown and Riley Price for his own tough try between the posts while backrower Connelly Lemuelu’s physicality was key in repelling raids down the North Queensland left.“I’m not disappointed or bitter about him playing well,” Cowboys coach Todd Payten said.
“He’s a nice kid and he left here a better person and a better footballers. The Dolphins are reaping the rewards for some of our hard work and his talent on the pitch.”
THE JA-MAYNE MAN
Isaako brought the Dolphins within 40 minutes of claiming the club’s first win over Queensland opposition with a first-half hat-trick.
The former Bronco and Titan has now scored an NRL-high eight tries in five-and-a-half matches.
Isaako found himself in open space just eight minutes into the contest for the Dolphins first before doubling down in the 16th minute, high-pointing a precision strike from 18-year-old halfback Isaiah Katoa and planting with millimeters of space to spare.
With a man advantage through Hess’ sin-binning, the Dolphins punished the Cowboys for Isaako’s third for the half with simple hands.
His poor goal-kicking was the only blight.
“Jamayne wasn’t wanted at the Broncos and went to the Seagulls and they didn’t want him at the end but I’ve always had great belief in him,” Bennett said.
“He came to the Broncos because of me and it’s just magnificent to see a player like him, with the confidence he’s got, playing with these guys.”
DRINKWATER DANGEROUS
The Cowboys fullback returned from his three-week suspension and showed why Cowboys officials had signed the Terrigal product to a multimillion dollar four-year extension.
The 25-year-old was part of everything good about North Queensland’s attack.
Two harbour bridge passes to Kyle Feldt were the only points the Cowboys could muster in the first half while darting Drinkwater dashes into half-gaps were the most threatening North Queensland got.
“We’re a better team when he plays,” Payten said.“He’s got speed out of the back of shape, he’s got good vision and he makes us a better team.”
HAMMER V DRINKWATER: DID COWBOYS LET WRONG FULLBACK GO?
—Peter Badel
Dolphins speed machine Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow says there is no “bad blood” with the Cowboys as he prepares to face Scott Drinkwater, the fullback rival whose brilliance forced him out of Townsville.
Drinkwater returns from suspension for the Cowboys’ Good Friday clash against the Dolphins at Queensland Country Bank Stadium and a feature of the new derby will be his backfield battle with the ‘Hammer’.
The Hammer-Drinkwater narrative is compelling.
Tabuai-Fidow started last year as North Queensland’s first-choice fullback, relegating Drinkwater to the Queensland Cup for a month, but when the Hammer suffered a leg injury, it opened the door for ‘Drinky’.
The classy playmaker then slammed the door shut on Tabuai-Fidow, producing a stunning burst of form that clinched a five-year extension for Drinkwater, while the Hammer languished on the bench.
Desperate to cement himself as a fullback, Tabuai-Fidow requested an early release from the Cowboys to ink a deal with the Dolphins and the move to the new expansion franchise has paid dividends.
The 21-year-old has six tries from five appearances, is averaging 160 running metres per game and now has the chance to outgun Drinkwater on former home soil he knows well in Townsville.
“It was a big call to get out of my comfort zone and test myself at the Dolphins, but I’ve enjoyed coming down here and the club has been welcoming. It’s been great,” Tabuai-Fidow said.
“Fullback is the position I wanted to play coming into first grade.
“The Dolphins gave me that opportunity to come down under Wayne (Bennett) and I have learned a lot of stuff from him.
“Going up against ‘Drinky’, he is back this weekend and is a big part of what they do, so it will be a great match-up against him and it’s my plan to come out on top.”
Arguably the fastest man in the NRL, Tabuai-Fidow scored 21 tries from 50 games for the Cowboys and was tipped for stardom at the club when he made his Queensland Origin debut two years ago.
The Cowboys were founded to keep juniors like Cairns product Tabuai-Fidow in north Queensland. In a perfect world, the Hammer would have finished his career in Townsville, but he has produced career-best football at the Dolphins.
“It was hard to leave,” he said.
“At the start it was hard to go, but I knew I had to move on.
“I wanted to play fullback and when Drinky nailed down that spot, it made it hard for me. It was a bit foreign for me coming off the bench, so when the Dolphins gave me the opportunity to play fullback, I had to take it.
“There is no bad blood with anyone at the Cowboys. I still have love for the club, they did heaps for me and they gave me my big chance in the NRL. I am excited for this weekend. It will be a bit surreal playing against them.
“I came to the Dolphins with no real pressure, I just tried to play my natural way and Wayne Bennett has supported me with that.
“It’s been a good move.”
Drinkwater admits he had mixed emotions over Tabuai-Fidow’s Dolphins departure.
“It kind of sucks that Hammer had to leave here,” Drinkwater said.
“Naturally I was a little bit worried when I was stuck in the Queensland Cup.
“There were thoughts there that I might have to move on and find a new club, but when injuries come in rugby league, you have to take your chances.
“Hammer is a north Queensland boy and still a good mate of mine, but that’s rugby league at this professional level.”
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