After four losses to start the 2025 NRL season, Dolphins coach Kristian Woolf was challenged early in his tenure.

A successful mentor in the UK, he backed his skills and judgement in the belief he could get the team playing better in the short term.

However, as an NRL rookie head coach he also needed to unlock a team that looked incredibly conservative and lacking in belief.

That first month of the season was not particularly good for the Dolphins, with a close loss to the Bunnies followed by bigger defeats to the Knights, Tigers and Broncos.

Most alarming was the fact that the teams with which the Phins had locked horns, were not going that well themselves and that remains true for the most part.

It took a week five win against the Titans to kick-start a season in desperate need of energy and Gold Coast obliged with an awful performance that saw them trounced 36-10.

The pressure eased a little on Woolf, with the club seeing improvement and admiring the way he navigated the situation.

Since that win, the Dolphins have been travelling as well and if not better than most. Six wins have come from the team’s last nine matches, but it is the scalps and score lines along that journey that say the most about just how promising the season is becoming for them.

A 30-12 win against the then struggling Panthers kept the premiers scratching their heads and wondering where all the magic had gone. With Penrith back in the top eight at the time of writing, the scalp does still hold some weight, as Ivan Cleary’s men resist the urge to panic and work their way back from a poor start.

A week later, the Dolphins put 42 points on the Storm in a win few saw coming and suddenly, the three wins had them on the fringes of the top eight. Their chance to continue the momentum was missed a week later when the Raiders were too strong at home 40-28, and there is no disgrace in the result considering the Canberra performances we are seeing on a week to week basis.

Kristian Woolf has the Dolphins humming after a slow start to 2025. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)

With the team desperate for its first bye and a little flat against the Chooks in Round 9, momentum appeared to be halted. Yet a hard-fought 20-16 over the Eels settled them, before they pushed the Warriors all the way in a 20-16 loss in Queensland.

For those watching closely, the improvement was obvious and Isaiya Kotoa, Herbie Farnworth, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Jamayne Isaako have led the team superbly, consistently chewing up the metres that have allowed the Dolphins to stay on the front foot since that Round 5 win.

The no nonsense pack has been outstanding and the bench has out-worked a few others that feature bigger reputations. In short, things have clicked, and never more obviously than when the Dogs had an ill-disciplined off-night and the Phins knocked the ladder leaders out of the park with a rousing 44-8 win on the road.

The bye came at a perfect time and a fortnight later the Dragons felt the wrath of the Phins in an abysmal display where the Dolphins cracked the 50 point barrier and St George-Illawarra could manage just a lone try. Saturday night sees a chance to consolidate on a trip to North Queensland to face the Cowboys.

It is a tough and Origin affected match, although far more concerning for the Cows, with a number of stars out and only Tabuai-Fidow missing for the visitors.

Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow celebrates after scoring. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

After a busy start to the season, there are still two byes in the kit bag.

A win against the Cowboys and with the Knights, Rabbitohs and Sharks looking like possible kills over the next month, could see the Dolphins cemented inside the top eight and playing a quality of football that has already stacked up well against some of the heavyweights in 2025.

Woolf will look to add a little polish and have the required improvement happening across the next two months in order to get to the standard needed to challenge.

Whilst not everyone will be convinced that the Dolphins are close to being a top four contender, the recent results, a sloppy poor start and what lays ahead, all suggest that in context, Woolf’s team are travelling as well as anyone in the competition.

That makes them an interesting watch across the back-end of the season, with the Dogs, Raiders and Storm all having already seen just how good they can be on their day.