The Titans' 2026 season has ended in a 24-20 defeat to the Dolphins, but coach Josh Hannay believes the result was shaped too heavily by the whistle rather than the players on the field.
In their final game of the season, the Titans showed plenty of fight against a top-four Dolphins side, twice being forced to play with 12 men and still finding themselves within striking distance late in the contest.
For Hannay, however, the frustration centred on a series of officiating decisions that he felt swung momentum throughout the match.
“(It was a) great start,” Hannay said.
“A couple of big calls sort of flipped the game on its head, lost all momentum, fought really hard to regain momentum and then finish really strongly, and then again, just some stuff that is hard to explain, but we're getting used to it."
The first major flashpoint came in the 22nd minute when Keano Kini was sent to the sin bin.
Hannay felt the decision was harsh, particularly given what followed, with the Dolphins scoring through Herbie Farnworth after a contested ball that the Titans coach believed involved a knock-on.
“I thought it (Kini sin bin) was incredibly harsh. Not long after that, they get a try (to Farnworth) from a knock-on, a contested ball," Hannay said.
“So you talk about momentum swings, they don't get much bigger than that."
Despite being down a player, the Titans conceded just one try during Kini's absence and continued to battle their way back into the contest.
Then, in the final minutes, Moeaki Fotuaika was sent to the sin bin, leaving Gold Coast again defending with 12 men as the Dolphins looked to close out the victory.
Hannay was particularly frustrated by that decision.
“I think Mo got smacked in the face at the end there, and he ends up in the bin for retaliating after getting smacked in the head," Hannay said.
“They throw a leg out to trip in the act of a potential try-scoring play. Nothing happens; it's just a penalty.
“It's probably a more sin-binnable than Keano's act, to be brutally honest.
“So you want to stack all those things up, and you lose by four points. You've got to be pretty proud of your team's effort.”
The Titans ultimately managed to keep the Dolphins out for the final two minutes despite being a man down, but the four-point margin left Hannay questioning how much influence officiating had on the outcome.
The Titans coach also pointed to a second-half no-try ruling involving Bostock, conceding that the Dolphins had been on the wrong side of that decision but arguing that a later correction did not compensate for earlier calls.
“I think that the second-half no-try with Bostock, that was a square up. That was a try to the Dolphins,” Hannay said.
“But we want the call right in the first half when we've got all the momentum. We don't need a square up in the second half; get it right in the first half.”
It was a pointed message from Hannay ahead of the finals, with the Titans coach wanting the teams competing for the premiership to ultimately decide their own fate rather than having matches influenced by officiating decisions.
“Those teams that are playing finals next week, they work hard to get to that position. You just hope over the next four weeks the teams sort out the result,” he said.
For Hannay, the issue was not about demanding every decision go one way, but ensuring the biggest games of the season are settled by the players and teams competing in them.
Dolphins coach Kristian Woolf acknowledged that his side had benefited from some contentious decisions, including the sin binning of Kini and the try awarded to Farnworth.
“I thought it was a tough sin bin. They were a bit unlucky with the try. We'd seen it was a knock on obviously,” Woolf said before stating Titans also got the rub of the green in the second half.
The Dolphins will now head into the finals, while the Titans enter the off-season having missed the finals once again.
But after pushing a top-four side to the final stages of the contest, Hannay's biggest takeaway was the fight shown by his players and his hope that the upcoming finals series will be decided by the football, rather than the whistle.
” Dolphins coach Kristian Woolf acknowledged that his side had benefited from some contentious decisions, including the sin binning of Kini and the try awarded to Farnworth. ”
That tells you the refereeing must have been really poor.