The Dolphins need to win four of their remaining seven games to play finals, but first and foremost is fixing a worrying second-half trend. Wayne Bennett's men are seventh ahead of the home clash with Gold Coast on Sunday, but have lost five of their past seven matches. In those games the Dolphins have only trailed once at halftime.
In the five losses their points conceded in second halves (72) have been similar to the first half. In attack, however, the Dolphins have scored just 31 points in the second half compared to 70 in the first. "Can we call the game off at halftime? Is there any chance of changing the rules for us? "Can we start that headline? Only play half a game for the Dolphins," Bennett joked when his side's second half failings were pointed out.
" On a serious note, the coach said his side had work to do. "We're working on it. It's an issue we recognised some time ago," Bennett said.
"We're giving a lot out there and we've got to keep giving a little bit more and not taking the foot off the throat. "It's not fitness. It's just the intensity of the games.
" The Dolphins do have four first-choice starters missing with the injured Thomas Flegler, Tom Gilbert, Euan Aitken and Jeremy Marshall-King leaving a huge hole. "We don't have the luxury other teams do have with regards to players and that type of stuff," Bennett said. "These guys have been tremendous, they're doing their best every time they go out and in the end they're beating themselves.
We're on top of it, .