Dolphins co-captain Tom Gilbert has warned that the players must take accountability and fix their bad attitudes after an unacceptable 52-18 thrashing by Manly in front of their home fans in Redcliffe.
The Dolphins have the bye next round before a tough draw that includes playing competition leaders Penrith in Darwin, the Warriors in Wellington and Melbourne at Suncorp Stadium.
Thursday night was the third time in four meetings that Manly had put 50-plus points on the Dolphins.
There was a lot of talk in the pre-season from Dolphins players about how they would fix the defensive issues that have cost them any chance of playing finals in their first three seasons.
Instead, it has just got worse, with 142 points conceded in five games at 28.4 per match, compared to their season-average of 24.8 in 2025.
Coach Kristian Woolf said the side would have to "make changes" and was asked whether that meant to personnel.
"No, we have to improve what we are doing," he said.
The Dolphins churned out diabolical numbers on Thursday night.
Their completion rate against Manly was a woeful 64 per cent. They missed 37 tackles, made 14 errors, lost the penalties 9-3 and had forwards Morgan Knowles, Thomas Flegler and Connelly Lemuelu all put on report. Knowles was also sin-binned.
It is no wonder Woolf was asked if they had a discipline problem.
"From tonight's performance there is. We have to be more disciplined in how we want to play that is for sure." he said.
The performance, at the club's spiritual home in Redcliffe, was unacceptable in front of a parochial and sold-out crowd.
"It is disappointing, more so because it was a big occasion for us," Gilbert said.
"We prepared really well and wanted to come here and do a good job for our fans and our people.
"We walk off the field and we were only in it for the first 10 minutes. We buckled under pressure."
Gilbert said a reset was required and everyone had to buy in.
"Moving forward you have got to stick together and you have got to have accountability as an individual and a group to come back stronger," he said.
"This can define us in a really good way, in terms of not letting it happen again.
"There are lessons but you have to question our attitudes and the way we performed. You have got to draw a line in the sand. We can't let that happen again."
The Dolphins will have to turn around their season in the short term without injured hooker Jeremy Marshall-King (knee) and prop Daniel Saifiti (shoulder), who are yet to play this year.
"Marshall-King is a couple of weeks away, probably round nine or something along those lines," Woolf said.
"Saifiti is probably further away. It is slow progress that one."
