Corey Parker "convinced" in Dolphins NRL finals aspirations

Brisbane Broncos great Corey Parker has put his club allegiances to the side, declaring the Dolphins a real finals contender as they continue to push for a top four finish in just their second NRL season.

The Dolphins under supercoach Wayne Bennett are on a high after an away win over the Cronulla Sharks last round to claim outright fourth position.

The competition’s newest team is finding form despite the absences of frontline forwards Tom Flegler, Tom Gilbert and Jesse Bromwich and while many people are still writing off the Dolphins, Parker is not one of them.

“One thing the Dolphins have done, is they’ve woken the NRL world up,” he said on the Wednesday Wind Up on Mornings SENQ.

“They’ve sort of said ‘hey, have a look at us, we’re not here just to make up the numbers’ like many have thought.

“I’m convinced already, let’s not take anything away from the Dolphins, they beat the Sharks at Shark Park after leading by 22 points, yes the Sharks came back and made a bit of a run but ultimately at the end of the year, it’s still a win.

“The Sharks beat the Broncos, the Sharks had beaten the Roosters and they beat the Melbourne Storm, so they have knocked off some sides.

“They’re well and truly in the hunt for the semi-finals.”

As the Dolphins prepare for another big test against the Melbourne Storm at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night, Parker said it was the team’s DNA which gave him confidence in them.

“Based on what we see, their DNA we see from week to week, they don’t beat themselves, they’re a typically coach Wayne Bennett side in the sense that they complete very high and they compete really hard,” he said.

“On the back of that they’ve got some real players in their team who can win games.

“Let us not forget they also don’t have Tom Gilbert or Thomas Flegler and they’ve been without Jesse Bromwich for a number of weeks now.

“They have a great connected footy team there at the moment.”

The Dolphins sit in fourth place with eight wins from 13 games while the Storm are in first place with 10 wins from 13 games.