Hard man Kurt says Dolphins have a nose for the finals

Dolphins utility Kurt Donoghoe said the bye came at just the right time for his side – and himself – with the team now focused on building into the back end of the season.

The utility returned to the field after suffering a broken nose to score a try as the Dolphins posted an emphatic 44-8 win over the Bulldogs in Round 12, with some ‘old school’ techniques from team doctor Peter Hackney helping him get back on.

“It was pretty rough to be honest,” Donoghoe said.

“I don’t remember too much. I went into a tackle and remember coming out of it and looking at a few of my teammates in shock. I was in a fair bit of pain, but the doctor looked after me pretty well.

“I had no idea what was going on. I went to touch my face and there was a hole in my face. I couldn’t breathe out of it, so I was mouth breathing. I had my mouthguard in, so I was trying to take that out. It was a stressful moment.

“(The doctor) did a good job. He had two cracks at it. When he was touching it it was pretty painful but after that it was not too bad.

“The bye came at a good time for myself.”

With the whole team freshened up from a weekend off and some key players like Jeremy Marshall-King and Max Plath nearing a return, Dolphins winger Jamayne Isaako said his team were looking forward to getting back onto the field.

The Kiwi representative, who is once again near the top of the competition’s leading points scoring tally with 122 – trailing just Storm gun Ryan Papenhuyzen – said the side would head into game against the Dragons knowing a good result could set them up for a strong back-end of the year.

“Obviously we had a pretty tough start there to the year, we were 0 from 4 to start before we got our first dub (win) and it’s a big challenge this week for us, coming off the back off a bye,” Isaako said.

“The boys are feeling a bit fresh and we had a couple of days off to be able to get ourselves right and hopefully get our season on track this back end of the season.

“I think (our belief) comes internally, it all comes down to us and I think performances like the Dogs, we were able to put a clinical performance on.

“There were certain areas within our game that we knew that we needed to be better in from the week before and I thought we went down there and put in a performance that we knew we'd be proud of.

“(That win) was off the back of a great week's prep and just routine.

“When we tend to get that right, we tend to give ourselves a chance and set ourselves up for the performance that we want.”