I'm old enough to remember the Dolphins were winning the comp this time last year. We were sitting 8th after round 5, the same points as the Tigers.. Same time in 2023 we were 7th and had won 1 game.
Amazing how narrow sighted and short memories people have... This team almost always starts slow, throw in the typical combo changes, it takes a good 8 weeks to nail down what we are going to look like when it actually counts.
There's some creative accounting going on here.
This is our worst start to a season since 2016.
Here's how our first 4 games have unfolded in Ivan's second stint:
Year | Record | F/A |
2025 | 1-3 | 102-118 |
2024 | 3-1 | 82-54 |
2023 | 2-2 | 97-52 |
2022 | 4-0 | 112-54 |
2021 | 4-0 | 110-16 |
2020 | 3-1 | 92-56 |
2019 | 2-2 | 39-74 |
You need to go back to 2019 to find the last stretch of 4 games where we have conceded 20 points per game.
2019 was also the season where we used more players than any other team, and we're on track for that again in 2025.
Oh, and we missed the finals in 2019.
I'm not saying the sky is falling - but we need to be realistic, at the moment, our defence is putrid.
Our discipline on and off the ball is putting pressure on our defence, and we're incapable to defending our line for more than 1 or 2 sets.
Injuries haven't helped - but every team has injuries. And look at the team that the Roosters put up that destroyed us and tell me it's an excuse.
Our points scored in junk time against the Roosters and Rabbits mask some pretty severe problems IMO.
Our entire game revolves around pressure. We hang onto the ball, chase our kicks hard, and strangle them out of the game. If we can't hang onto the ball and are giving away penalties coming out of their end, we don't have much.