A 40-16 decisive victory over the Pride on Saturday gave Redcliffe a prime spot going into the finals, with the Phins capping off an impressive season to clinch a top two finish.
While the final victory was sweet for the Redcliffe side, the match was closer than they would have liked, despite the final scoreline.
The Dolphins were down by four points as the Pride led 16-12 at the hafltime break.
“We were doing a lot of things we wanted to do (but there were) some things that we needed to improve on,” Dolphins coach Adam Mogg said.
“We spoke about that at halftime, and the players responded.”
Jonus Pearson led the scoring charge with three tries, followed by two from Myles Taueli while Matthew Lodge and Christian Hazard also crossed for the visitors. Tyson Gamble finished the game with six successful conversions.
The Pride saw tries from Jack Campagnolo, Gideon Gela-Mosby and Marcus Jensen, with Jordan Biondi-Odo successful with two conversions.
The victory means the Dolphins can rest this week, as their second place standing guarantees them a week off and two chances at the finals.
According to Mogg, even though the team has much to celebrate going into these finals; the hard work is still to come.
“We’re winning, but we need to keep on improving,” Mogg said. “We need to keep pressing ourselves to keep improving now that the game has gone up a level.
“It’s a deciding time for all teams in the finals, so we need to make sure we’re going into it with a high tempo.”
Next up, the Dolphins have a big test ahead as they prepare to take on the league-leading PNG Hunters.
A matchup against the Hunters would be a challenge for any squad, but if coach Mogg is nervous leading up to the game, he certainly isn’t showing it.
“We’ll prepare for each team as we play them,” Mogg said.
“We got a big game against PNG, and we’ll prepare to play PNG slightly differently as we would against any other team.”
See the full scoring details and final team line-ups for this game at QRL Live
REDCLIFFE DOLPHINS 40 (Jonus Pearson 3, Myles Taueli 2, Matthew Lodge, Christian Hazard tries; Tyson Gamble 6 goals) def NORTHERN PRIDE 16 (Jack Campagnolo, Gideon Gela-Mosby, Marcus Jensen tries; Jordan Biondi-Odo 2 goals) at Barlow Park.
