Dolphins face historic curse bigger than Wayne Bennett
The Wayne Bennett curse is one thing but avoiding a 0-4 start to the season is the immediate item on the Dolphins' agenda ahead of their NRL derby clash with Brisbane.
The Dolphins are winless after three rounds ahead of the "Battle of Brisbane" on Friday night.
Only one side in premiership history has started a season with four consecutive losses and won the title. That was the Newtown side of 1933 and none of those players are alive to tell us how they managed it.
Rugby league historian and statistician David Middleton has provided AAP with compelling statistics which show why an 0-4 start to the season is so hard to recover from.
Only six teams in the NRL era have made the finals after such a dire start - Brisbane (1999), Melbourne (2000), St George-Illawarra (2005), Manly (2009 and and 2021) and Cronulla (2015).
It is worth noting that those sides mostly had a recent history of success or were on the cusp of a title. The Broncos won the premiership in 1998 and 2000. The Storm were coming off a maiden title in 1999. The Sea Eagles were champions in 2008 and the Sharks tasted glory in 2016.
The Dolphins have no such history and only time will tell if they can challenge for a premiership next year.
The Bennett curse has struck all five teams he has left since 2008 with coaches fired after or during the first, second or third seasons. The narrative is persisting under new coach Kristian Woolf.
"It's going to persist while we're not winning and it's going to persist while we don't achieve things as a team," Woolf said.
"You blokes love writing about it when we're not winning and once we're winning, it'll go away, so it'll take care of itself."
There are three key areas the Dolphins must get right to beat the Broncos.
Firstly, the forwards must back up prop Daniel Saifiti and take it to Brisbane as Canberra did a fortnight ago. Saifiti was the only Dolphins forward to run for more than 100m last week in the 30-18 loss to Wests Tigers. It is not good enough.
"That's a big battle this week," Woolf said.
"Their middle forwards are outstanding. (Payne) Haas, (Pat) Carrigan and (Kobe) Hetherington do a really good job.
"We know the challenge and will be up for it.
"We didn't do a lot of running with the footy in the second half last week. That ties into beating ourselves."
Secondly, star fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow must showcase his elite running game, which has so far failed to materialise in 2025.
"It's our responsibility as a team and mine as a coach to make sure we're getting him the ball in good positions," Woolf said.
"We haven't done a great job at that. We've done it in little bits but not consistently.
"He is ready to go and confident like everyone else. He has always got to look for work. We've got to make sure we're creating those opportunities for him."
Thirdly, halves Kodi Nikorima and Isaiya Katoa must step up in the big moments and be backed up when they do.
"I'm not going to put that all on our halves," Woolf said.
"In all the games we've missed opportunities they've created and other blokes haven't quite finished them.
"Once we stop beating ourselves and take the opportunities we're creating, we're going to see results."
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