Jamayne Isaako missed a late conversion to gift the Bulldogs the points in a back-and-forth clash in Bundaberg, with Canterbury running out 23-22 winners.
Matt Burton’s field goal, slotted just before the break, proved to be the difference, handing the Dogs just their second win in eight games.
It might have been another dispiriting defeat: the Dolphins trailed 17-8 when Wayne Bennett hooked halfback Sean O’Sullivan and replaced him with Anthony Milford, who sparked a late charge with two tries.
In the end, it was only Isaako’s kicking that let the Dogs off the hook, with the winger spurning a late conversion – admittedly with a tough wind to contend with – that would have stolen the points.
Cameron Ciraldo will take the wins however they come at the moment, but might question whether this could have been a lot easier on his heartrate. The Dogs bombed several tries as Redcliffe began brilliantly, faded badly, then fired up again for the close.
“They boys are pretty pumped but we haven’t really done anything,” said Ciraldo.
“We are where we are on the ladder and that’s disappointing but we want to use this last part of the year to build on, and we want to win as many games as possible.
“So happy with today’s performance but we’ve got a lot to work on and a lot of cohesion to build as well.”
Viliame Kikau returned to the NRL after several months on the sideline, scoring a try over the top of Kodi Nikorima, but was a little off the pace late as Kodi repaid the favour with a burst of speed that got Milford over for the late try that could have given the Dolphins two points to keep their finals hopes alive.
Now, with eight wins on the board and likely 13 needed, they are all but done for the year.
“We weren’t even supposed to win any games so I don’t know why we would want to talk about finals football,” said Bennett.
“We have got five games to go in the season and we will go and do our best again next week. We continue to make an effort. We don’t give up. We keep trying and keep at it.”
Not every game can be the Grand Final or State of Origin. It’s impossible to play rugby league in a half-hearted manner, and there’s no suggestion that either of these two did, but there was a notable lack of intensity that comes from neither side having anything to play for.
The Dolphins have excelled in being more competent than bad teams and the Dogs have often been bad, and for a decent amount of the first half, it looked like that would be how this one went. Then the script flipped and suddenly Redcliffe couldn’t hold the ball.
One passage early in the second half, where Jacob Preston waltzed through a non-existent tackle from Te Whare, then completely missed Jake Averillo with a simple draw and pass, spoke to a general lack of quality on display.
The Dogs are patched up and clearly thinking about what they might do in 2024 rather than right now. Liam Knight debuted and Kikau returned from injury with a try, but beyond that, not much was learned about the team.
One does wonder if it mightn’t have been better to get more time into any of Khaled Rajab, Paul Alamoti or Hayze Perham, all of whom stayed home and played NSW Cup.
Similarly, the Dolphins are very much playing out their fixtures at the moment, with the finals mathematically possible but highly unlikely. Their side are on the older end of the age spectrum and could do with being on the beach at the moment.
Sometimes these games can be wild points fests, where both teams play liberated from pressure and, yes, a little more interested in attack than defence. The Dogs have form in this, having put on a couple of 60-point games late last year, too.
We didn’t quite get to that point today, but there was enough in this eventually to keep the Bundaberg punters engaged.
It took a long time to get going, but once it did, the blue touch paper was lit. Te Whare’s try was pure crowd-pleasing stuff and we got a grandstand finish in the end.
This finished as both a testament to the theory that rugby league can produce great entertainment even when both teams are poor and play badly – but also an underlining of why neither of today’s clubs will be troubling the post-season quite yet.
Sometimes, you go round and round and end up where you started. This time last year, Mick Potter struck upon Jake Averillo as the best option for the Dogs at the back, a move that coincided with their best attacking football of the year.
Ciraldo then ditched that idea, preferring Perham at the back and Averillo in the centres, before reverting late in the year, long after Jake had decided to leave for the Dolphins.
Averillo was close to the best on ground again today, showing his usually combination of pure speed and two-handed ball-playing. He scored one and would have scored another had Preston completed the simplest of passes.
One does wonder what the point of it all was. Averillo is a local junior, clearly good enough to be in this Bulldogs team and, generally, one of their top three players.
He’s played his best footy at fullback but rarely been given a run there, but adds crucial utility value having also played on the wing and in the halves. Trying to fit him in is a good problem to have.
One is reminded of Nick Meaney, another great player that Canterbury never worked out what to do with who went on to be very good for someone else.
With Stephen Crichton coming to Belmore next year to play fullback, it’s always been clear that Perham was not the long-term option in the number one jumper, leaving Averillo with nowhere to go but the exit.
The Dolphins will take plenty of solace from the way that their future recruit played. One suspects Bennett and Kristian Woolf will already have a plan for how to use him next year.
If people can lose their job, and clubs can face massive payouts, due to the behaviour of coaches, it will drastically change the way sporting teams in Australia will be run.
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