Dolphins break Warriors’ hearts with last-gasp win in NRL thriller

Saturday, 27 June 2026

At Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane: Dolphins 26 (Selwyn Cobbo tries 5min, 78min, Herbie Farnworth try 24min, Jamayne Isaako tries 39min, 50min; Isaako 3 con) Warriors 24 (Jacob Laban try 8min, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak try 18min, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad try 61min, Sam Healey try 75min; Adam Pompey 4 con). HT: 16-12.

The Dolphins’ red-hot run in the NRL has continued, after the Warriors were sunk at the death in Brisbane on Saturday.

In a heart-in-the-mouth, rollercoaster ride of emotions across the final five minutes, and in fact for much of the 80 at Suncorp Stadium, the hosts, despite being stripped early of injured captain and halfback Isaiya Katoa, prevailed 26-24 for an eighth-straight win ‒ now the longest streak by any team in the competition since 2023.

Dallin Watene-Zelezniak of the Warriors scores a try during the round 17 NRL match between Dolphins and New Zealand Warriors at Suncorp Stadium.

That winning run had started the week after they had lost 20-18 to the Warriors in Wellington on Anzac Day, and here for the sixth time in succession, these two sides had less than four points separate them after yet another thriller.

Dallin Watene-Zelezniak’s 100th game for the Warriors turned a disappointing one for the star winger, who scored an early try but then hobbled off in the 57th minute with an injury to his left hamstring, able to only watch on as his side were broken at the death.

Jamayne Isaako of the Dolphins and team-mates celebrate victory after the round 17 NRL match between Dolphins and New Zealand Warriors.

Just minutes earlier, Sam Healey, injected for Wayde Egan for the final quarter, had scored what looked like the match-winning try in the 75th minute, when the crafty hooker dummied from dummy half on the last tackle and then powered through the tackle of Kulikefu Finefeuiaki and fellow Queensland State of Origin reps Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Thomas Flegler.

But the jubilation proved short-lived for Andrew Webster and the hordes of Warriors fans amongst the 40,465-strong crowd, as the Dolphins struck straight back when a stray pass from Katoa’s replacement, Brad Schneider, that bounced no fewer than three times, was scooped up by Selwyn Cobbo, and the Maroons flyer sped 20 metres through a stunned Warriors line to level the scores.

Jamayne Isaako then had the conversion from near the left touchline to edge his side in front, and the Kiwi sharp-shooter duly swung it round off the tee as he nearly always does, in a game where he bagged two tries himself and became the first player in premiership history to go nine games in succession logging 12 or more points (beating Brett Hodgson’s eight from 2005).

There was still time for more miracles, but Jack Bostock got up to claim the short kickoff, then the Warriors had one set to go the length, but when Taine Tuaupiki couldn’t snaffle a Te Maire Martin offload, that dream was done.

Still down some key men, the Warriors were underdogs for this pre-bye contest, but it’s a loss that will sting after Katoa left in just the 13th minute with a dislocated wrist and the visitors certainly had their chances.

Both teams were guilty of some sloppy ball control at times (the Warriors completing at 80% to the Dolphins’ 77%), while the visitors will rue their missed tackle figure hitting 50 to the 30 of the Dolphins, who took a 16-12 lead to the sheds after a first half with no shortage of drama, featuring five tries and another three wiped out by the bunker.

After a couple of great try-saving plays down their own end, the Warriors had led 12-4 at the quarter-mark, but had to play from behind in the second stanza after Adam Pompey endured a forgettable final few minutes of the half after badly dropping a ball and having Kodi Nikorima strip him of a ball, to see Isaako put over for a brilliant score in the right corner.

Isaako’s second try came in peculiar fashion, when Bostock got through a bad miss from Pompey, then grubbered on the fourth tackle, the ball ricocheting off Tuaupiki’s face for Isaako to finish off.

The Dolphins were then denied what looked another odd one, when Connelly Lemuelu was ruled to have lost, and not passed, a ball, and after Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad was put over to narrow the margin, Healey’s heroics looked like making it the Warriors’ day.

But it was not to be, in a loss that now sees Webster’s side remain in second spot, but with the Dolphins (and Roosters) now only behind them on points differential.