The Dolphins have beaten the Penrith Panthers for the first time since joining the NRL in 2023.

Star fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow scored three long-range tries to sink the four-time defending premiers, who have now lost five in a row.

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Ivan Cleary was asked if he can salvage this season.

“Of course we can. Because I have faith in the boys,” he said.

When asked what the biggest issue is at the moment for his club, he identified defence as a weakness.

“It’s pretty obvious our defence is not up to standard, and it’s having an effect on the rest of our game,” Cleary said.

“We’ve got to get to work and improve it, because if we don’t, it will keep happening.”

Dolphins coach Kristian Woolf has heaped praise on his team after defeating Penrith 30-12.

While the Dolphins scored some breathtaking long-range tries, it was their defence that the coach wanted to talk about.

“Really proud of our effort,” Woolf said.

“Our defence tonight was outstanding. We had a real grit and determination about us … we weren’t giving away anything cheaply.”

Heading into last weekend, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow had not scored a try in 2025.

He now has four of them, including a hat-trick tonight to sink the Penrith Panthers.

He joins ABC Sport’s Zane Bojack after the 30-12 victory at Lang Park.

“It’s a good feeling getting back to scoring tries. Full credit to the boys, they turned up tonight and it was a good performance.”

Dolphins lock Max Plath has joined ABC Sport.

The forward was full of praise for his team while speaking to Zane Bojack, but was glowing of his fullback, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow.

“There’s no better feeling. Even at the end there, bloody hell. You work your backside off for players like that.”

The Panthers’ 1-5 start to the season is the worst by a defending premier since the Brisbane Broncos went 0-5 in 1999.

Penrith champion Isaah Yeo joins Zane Bojack on ABC Sport who asked if the hunger was still their for the Panthers after winning the previous four premierships.

“I’d like to think so, every game, every time we’ve pushed, I feel like we do [have the hunger],” Yeo says.

“We just don’t do it for long enough stretches.

“Until you win and you start getting results, those questions will keep continuing to come.”

Penrith have slumped to a fifth consecutive NRL loss after Dolphins hat-trick hero Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow had a blinder in a stunning 30-12 win.

No side in the 117-year history of the premiership has come back from a 1-5 start to a season and won the title and that is the scenario the four-time premiers now face.

Dolphins fullback Tabuai-Fidow was the chief destroyer on Thursday night at Lang Park, scoring three tries and saving two in a terrific performance.

Penrith’s attack was dysfunctional and their defence on the edges was threadbare.

A pass by maestro halfback Nathan Cleary that went into touch in the second half, due largely to winger Paul Alamoti being in the wrong spot, summed up their night and their dire form.

The Dolphins were superb. They only played the ball once in the opposition half in the opening 25 minutes but still held a 12-6 lead after defending like demons and attacking with flair.

Centres Herbie Farnworth and Jake Averillo carved up while 21-year-old half Isaiya Katoa controlled play with style.

Tabuai-Fidow started and finished a slick 55-metre move in an interchange of passing with blistering left centre Farnworth to open the scoring.

Cleary conjured a slick grubber kick for centre Casey McLean to level, but from there, the Dolphins dominated.

Tabuai-Fidow was at it again down the right side in a mirror image of his first try, only this time it was in cahoots with right centre Averillo.

Alamoti was sin-binned and put on report for a high shot on Tom Gilbert in the 26th minute and Averillo went over for an 18-6 lead at the break.

Dolphins prop Josh Kerr threw an offload the great former Dolphins captain-coach Arthur Beetson would have been proud of to put back-rower Connelly Lemuelu over after halftime.

The Panthers did not look likely until the 73rd minute when Cleary put a grubber kick in that was, for reasons only known to himself, kicked by winger Jack Bostock in his own in-goal straight into the arms of prop Moses Leota to score.

Tabuai-Fidow streaked away late to ice the win.

Penrith had 50 tackles inside the Dolphins’ quarter but scored just twice, both off kicks.

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It is icing on the most wonderful cake for the Dolphins.

Penrith halfback Nathan Cleary tries a grubber kick in desperation. It is tapped by a Dolphin to Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, and The Hammer has a smile on his face.

The Panthers’ defence is in tatters, and Tabuai-Fidow goes up the middle and runs 80 metres to score his third try.

Jack Bostock — what have you done?

Penrith prop Moses Leota has scored. It’s not a try, it is a dead-set Christmas present.

Nathan Cleary put in a grubber kick to the in-goal.

The ball was probably going over the deadball line.

Dolphins winger Jack Bostock came across in cover, but there was not a Panther in the same postcode.

For whatever reason, Bostock has kicked the footy. The ball came off the inside of his boot and went across the deadball line, back in field, and to Leota.

The Panthers have spent the majority of the past 10 minutes attacking the Dolphins’ goal line.

But the Dolphins’ defence has been excellent. This is the best defensive effort of the home side this season.

The Dolphins, for a moment, thought they had been gifted a try and the win.

Panthers’ interchange hooker Brad Schneider passed the ball from dummyhalf and it goes over the head of a Panther, and the Dolphins dived on the ball and scored.

But the Dolphins were penalised as Isaiya Katoa had not cleared the ruck, which forced the awkward pass.

The Penrith Panthers are starting to throw the football around.

It is exciting but looks desperate. The premiers are trying to find a spark.

Fullback Dylan Edwards, who is making his return tonight, is creating chances on his own.

He has a couple of linebreaks in this second half, but then the play ultimately breaks down for the Panthers.

Penrith has had their best chance in a while, but they could not break the Dolphins’ defence.

The Panthers were given a penalty 11 metres out, after Dolphins five-eighth Kodi Nikorima obstructed a kick chase.

Four tackles later, the Panthers were given another penalty when Jamayne Isaako was put on report for a tackle on Penrith’s Blaize Talagi.

Isaako grabbed the back of Talagi’s jersey and dragged him to the ground, but the force led to Talagi going headfirst into the grass. It was accidental but, by the letter of the law, illegal.

Penrith had a full set at the line but just could not break through and score.

Brilliant from the Dolphins.

TRY. TRY. Dolphins score early to extend their lead to 18 points.

It was the Dolphins’ first use of the ball, and they marched down the field with ease.

Multiple set-restarts allowed the Dolphins to maintain pressure on the line.

And Josh Kerr got a beautiful offload to Connelly Lemuelu, who strolled over untouched.

ABC Sport caller Quentin Hull may have summed it up best:

“Someone call Caesar; Rome is falling around him.”

The second half is underway at Lang Park.

The Panthers have a 12-point deficit, trying to avoid a five-straight loss.

The Penrith Panthers struggled in the first half and ABC Sport caller Billy Moore is struggling to see the positives after the first 40 minutes.

“I don’t see the fire power in attack, and I don’t see the ability to defend their mistakes,” Moore tells ABC Sport.

“A lot of soul-searching in the Panthers’ dressing room.”

The Dolphins have a 12-point lead at half-time, as the Penrith Panthers look down the barrel of five-straight defeats.

Dolphins fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow has two tries and looks a threat every time he touches the ball.

The Panthers’ defensive edge has been below NRL-standard, at times, in the first half. All three Dolphins tries were long-range and were aided by poor defence on the Penrith fringe.

Penrith winger Paul Alamoti is back on the field, and the Panthers are back to 13 players.

Try for Dolphins centre Jake Averillo in the right corner.

The linebreak came on the opposite side when Jack Bostock streaked down the left wing, which is now vacant with the sin bin of Paul Alamoti.

The Dolphins then shifted across the field, and the defence on the opposite fringe for the Panthers was not any better.

North Sydney Bears and Queensland Maroons legend Billy Moore says Penrith champions Nathan Cleary and Isaah Yeo look beyond frustrated.

“They are looking around at some of their players. They must be thinking ‘what is going on?'”