ANALYSIS: Marshall-King and Milford pile on the pain as Dolphins cruise by Dragons - with captain De Belin sent to bin

There shouldn’t be anything surprising about the Dolphins anymore. There definitely shouldn’t be anything surprising about Wayne Bennett getting one over on Ryan Carr, given the 901-game difference in their coaching experience.

Dutifully, the NRL new boys despatched St George Illawarra with relative ease, running home 26-12 winners on home turf in Redcliffe.

Though Jack Bird had given the Dragons the lead, a triple salvo midway through the first half turned it around, and, once the Dolphins went in front, there was no chance of them relinquishing the lead. Jamayne Isaako, in game 100, scored twice and was perfect with the boot to deliver the win.

“I’m happy with it,” said a typically-understated Bennett. “You don’t have to be pretty to win, you just have to get it done. We’re a very adaptable team, and we’ve had to be with injuries virtually every week that we play. 

“We had our best team on the park maybe in the first week but thereafter we’ve had players missing and now Origin players. To credit this team, they found a way.”

It was an unhappy beginning to Jack de Belin’s captaincy stint. Deputising for Origin-bound Ben Hunt, he was directly responsible for a Mark Nicholls try and then found himself binned for a cannonball tackle.

“It was a frustrating game as a whole,” said Carr.

“We made it far too hard on ourselves. Fair play to the Dolphins, they played a good game of footy. They hardly made an error, they turned the ball over down our end all night and we hardly saw their try line.

“When you concede that many penalties, six agains and have a sin bin, it’s always going to be hard to come back.”

The Dolphins’ spine dominate

They’re not a complicated bunch, the Dolphins. They’ll win no awards for flair, but as their record showed, they can be highly efficient in their work. 

The upshot is that they’ll beat bad teams a lot of the time, and while the recent bloodletting at St George Illawarra is likely the beginning of something better, the Dragons are undeniably a bad team,

The game was essentially decided in a quarter hour period in the first half that exposed why the Dolphins can be so effective. They crabbed slowly up the field, and when they got there, took up residence.

There were forced dropouts and set restarts, but not that much effective attack. Neither winger got much sight of the football before the kick on the last, but the Dragons had one set in 15 minutes midway, in which time the Dolphins scored three tries.

Thereafter, we saw the second part of the Dolphins’ plan. They’re excellent manipulators of game state, willing to slow the game down and play conservatively to keep their lead when the other team has to do all the work.

When you’re going to play predominantly through the middle, it makes sense to have your best player there – which is lucky for Bennett, because he has Jeremy Marshall-King.

His ability to control the markers, direct his forwards and dictate the tempo of the attack is the beating heart of this team.

JMK and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow are probably the only genuine stars the Dolphins have, and with Hammer out at Origin camp, the Kiwi international picked the perfect moment to shine.

He found Mark Nicholls with a smartly-weighted pass to get a crucial first half try, but it was his overall control and manipulation of pace that stood out.

Then you can throw in Isaiya Katoa – remember he’s just 12 games into a first grade career – and Anthony Milford, who had his best game in a long time in the five eighth role.

At times in the past, Milford has looked like he walked onto the field having watching a supercut of his own highlights on YouTube, intent on putting on a show. Under Bennett, he has played a much more restrained game and reaped the benefits. 

With JMK, Katoa and Milford together, the right decisions are made and all the constituent parts, though not as flashy as other NRL outfits, move in concert. It’s not always razzle dazzle stuff, but it certainly works.

Every Liddle helps

There were a lot of things about late period Anthony Griffin that were confusing. 

There was the insistence on completing sets over scoring tries, the ability to lose close games in increasingly unlikely circumstances and the unwillingness to play his best players even when the season was going down the toilet to name just three.

But perhaps the strangest compulsion was his unwavering faith in Moses Mbye as a 9, despite having signed, then extended Jacob Liddle. 

Nobody is saying Liddle is the second coming of Cameron Smith, but he is at least a recognised dummy half, which is more than can be said about Mbye. It was a doubly confusing choice because Mbye is a true utility, the perfect guy to have in the 14 for all contingencies. 

When Carr took over, he immediately righting the most obvious of wrongs and, hey presto, the Dragons suddenly looked like a team with a bit of direction. 

The rake was worth two linebreaks and a try assist, a good night for pretty much anyone, and it was all done through nuts-and-bolts dummy half play, spotting moments and identifying mismatches in the line. 

Hook seemed to think that the 9 role was about being able to tackle and pass off the floor. That’s certainly part of the brief, but there’s plenty more to it than that.