Andrew Johns slams ill-disciplined Dolphins as Knights cruise to victory

The Newcastle Knights have made it two from two to start 2025, dismantling an undisciplined Dolphins side 26-12 at McDonald Jones Stadium.

The result leaves new Dolphins head coach Kristian Woolf searching for answers, as his team continues to struggle for consistency. Despite making fewer errors and conceding fewer penalties than the Knights, their mistakes came at crucial moments—ultimately proving costly.

Sloppy discipline kills Dolphins’ momentum

It took just nine minutes for Newcastle to break the deadlock, with James Schiller strolling over untouched to open the scoring. The Dolphins looked to hit back almost immediately through Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, but the Bunker intervened, ruling that Felise Kaufusi had obstructed the defence in the lead-up.

That decision proved a turning point, as Schiller grabbed his second minutes later, before Bradman Best and Dane Gagai capitalised on a dominant Kalyn Ponga performance to extend the lead.

Andrew Johns was full of praise for the Knights’ attacking execution but didn’t hold back when assessing the Dolphins’ discipline.

“I haven’t seen the Knights look this slick in a long time,” Johns said on Nine.

Marshall-King’s nightmare night

Dolphins hooker Jeremy Marshall-King had a game to forget, twice getting penalised for incorrect roll-balls—an area Johns was quick to call out.

“Once again, the discipline—really poor,” he said. “They all know, all off-season they’ve been told. They need to be better.”

And when Marshall-King was pinged again in the second half, Johns doubled down.

“I’d make him get to training and do a thousand of them,” he said.

Cameron Smith backed up the criticism, suggesting the issue stems from training habits.

“Unless you train it, you’ll keep giving away cheap penalties like they have tonight,” Smith added.

Late fightback falls short

The Dolphins attempted to mount a late comeback, with Isaiya Katoa sparking some life in attack. But when Kai Pearce-Paul was sent to the bin, any remaining hope faded as the Knights held firm to claim the win.

Post-match, Woolf admitted the roll-ball errors came as a surprise.

“It was really disappointing,” he said. “That’s not something we’ve had a problem with during the trials or pre-season. I’m not quite sure how that crept in there tonight, but it hurt us quite a bit.”

With the Dolphins now staring at an 0-2 start, Woolf acknowledged the urgency to turn things around.

“Every win is important, every week is important. We would’ve loved to get the win tonight, but we didn’t. We need to get our season started at some stage.”

With plenty to fix, the Dolphins will need to regroup quickly before their next clash.