NRL Roundup: Four in a row for Dolphins, Wahs join Penrith on 20 points

Aaron Murphy

Alofiana Khan-Pereira celebrates a try with teammates and supporters in Kogarah on Saturday.MARK METCALFE / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP

Are Kristian Woolf's side being slept on in the middle of 2026?

The numbers that matter

The big winners of Round 12

Dolphins head coach Kristian Woolf expressed his frustration last week that the NRL's 17th club will become the last of the current crop to head to Las Vegas after they were snubbed for the 2027 edition, and the players also appear to have used the brushing off as motivation to creep back into the conversation for finals.

With four consecutive victories - for the first time in their history - the Dolphins have surged their way back into the top-eight and have put some significant points up along the way, aggregating 134 points albeit 102 of them against teams 12th or lower at the end of the round.

But this was one of their most outstanding victories of the season given the state of the team list they named last Tuesday.

Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, Selwyn Cobbo, Thomas Flegler and Max Plath all spent the weekend in the Origin camp, whilst Herbie Farnworth and Kodi Nikorima were both out with injury.

Half-back Isaiya Katoa was scintillating in attack and in defence, assisting two line breaks and a try as well as landing 29 tackles at 93% efficiency, and was at his best during a first half period in which the Dolphins completed 13 consecutive sets to take the game away from the Raiders.

They have a well-timed bye next round, giving them time to reintegrate their Origin stars back into the setup ahead of an important trip to North Queensland.

The big losers of Round 12

Melbourne Storm showed glimpses of a gradual return to the footy we expect from the men down south when they comfortably accounted for both Parramatta and Wests Tigers, only for them to return to their wicked ways at the weekend.

The Storm have been signficantly outplayed after half-time in all eight of their defeats in 2026, winning the four games in which they were able to keep things together for the full 80 minutes, but another second half with a completion rate of close to 50% killed them against the Bulldogs as they squandered an 18-6 half-time lead.

It was the fifth time in 2026 that the Storm led at the break only to go on to lose the match, and head coach Craig Bellamy was at times lost for words after the match.

"Dunno," Bellamy responded frankly when asked how he can fix the ongoing issue.

"Not quite sure why ... we're aware of it, but we can't seem to fix it."

"Is it a physical problem? Are they fit enough to only play 40 minutes? Or is it a mental problem where we get comfortable? I'm not quite sure at the moment. Our preparation has been pretty good. It's a new thing for us. Usually we've been pretty strong in our second halves."

"We're not getting run down, we're getting steamrolled. We have always prided ourselves on protecting (a lead) with a bit of ferocity, but we're laying down belly up and saying 'come and get us'."

"We're playing dumb. We're just doing dumb things at the wrong time," halfback and stand-in captain Jahrome Hughes added.

"We made unforced errors and stuff that didn't need to happen. You can't be doing that in today's game."

If the 25-year supercoach doesn't know how to fix a problem that has existed for months, the club - who are keen to show their faith and loyalty in light of Bellamy's recently revealed health battles - need to consider how else they can inject some fresh energy and motivation into the struggling side.

Who scored braces this week?

A shortened round naturally means less movement in the try scoring leaderboard, but we did see Warriors back Dallin Watene-Zelezniak move alongside three existing players to be equal-second behind runaway leader Tom Jenkins.

Dallin's teammates Alofiana Khan-Pereira and Te Maire Martin also scored doubles alongside Talanoa Penitani (Rabbitohs), Jethro Rinakama (Bulldogs) and Moses Leo (Storm).