The Dolphins have negotiated a 0-4 season start and a dire injury toll to climb into the NRL's top eight, and coach Kristian Woolf has been hailed as the mastermind.
The seventh-placed Dolphins are out of sight and out of mind in some respects in the NRL with their location on the Redcliffe peninsula, but the club's achievement through 14 rounds is nothing short of spectacular.
They were winless and last after four rounds with Parramatta, but despite losing prop Daniel Saifiti and captain Tom Gilbert to season-ending injuries - and likely lock Max Plath pending a visit to a specialist - they have not flinched.
Hooker Jeremy Marshall-King, one of the side's most influential players, also missed five weeks with a leg laceration.
Woolf has got the best out of the likes of utility Kurt Donoghoe, prop Josh Kerr and second-rower Kulikefu Finefeuiaki
No coach in the NRL has got more out of the squad available to him so far this season.
"Woolfy set us up for success with the standard that he upheld in that tough start to the year," Dolphins half Isaya Katoa said ahead of Saturday night's away clash with North Queensland.
"At training he told everyone to come in with a smile on our face and ready to go to work. There was to be no kicking stones or trying to blame each other.
"He reminded us that we weren't far off. There were a couple of moments in that whole month of footy where we lost four in a row that if we'd iced the game and got it right it would have gone a long way towards getting a result, so we knew it would turn for us."
Dolphins fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow said recent 44-8 and 56-6 wins over Canterbury and St George lllawarra were a tribute to the way Woolf kept his cool in the tough times.
"It's just the way he coaches and speaks to us. In that first four weeks he didn't have a blow-up in him," Tabuai-Fidow said.
"He just said to stick together and our best footy is ahead of us. It shows what we can do when we are on our game and playing good footy.
"The goal for us is to play finals footy, and if we keep working on what we are good at we will go a long way."
A cliche in rugby league can be the much-touted "next man up" mentality, but the Dolphins have made it a reality through their injury crisis.
"It is just about the way we stuck together," Tabuai-Fidow said.
"We didn't worry too much about (injuries). No one talked about it. We just got on with the job."
