SUPERCOACH Wayne Bennett tipped the rugby league world off its axis with one of the great ambushes as the NRL’s newest team the Dolphins delivered the feel-good narrative of the new football season.

Right on cue, using all the guile and craft garnered from more than four decades in the furnace of being a rugby league head coach, Bennett orchestrated a way to upstage premiership heavyweights the Sydney Roosters.

Like the majority of Bennett’s greatest upsets, it was built on grit, self-belief and a desire to prove the rest of the rugby league world wrong.

No one gave the Dolphins a snow flake’s chance in hell against the Chooks.

When Felise Kaufusi lined-up Brandon Smith and then Egan Butcher in the space of 90 seconds in the opening half at Suncorp Stadium, it completely turned the contest.

All of a sudden, with 32,117 fans rocking and rolling in a sea of red at the Brisbane Broncos home ground, the football gods began to write one of rugby league’s great entrances.

It was fitting given both clubs were playing for the inaugural Arthur Beetson Legacy Medal.

Make no mistake, Kaufusi’s two defensive plays towards the end of the opening half were Beetson-esque.

They had all the hallmarks of Arthur whacking his Parramatta teammate Mick Cronin in the inaugural State of Origin game in 1980 and turned the momentum of the game on its head.

The fuse for Kaufusi’s performance was lit seven minutes before his initial shot on ex-Storm teammate Smith when the “Cheese” pushed the Dolphins newest enforcer in the ruck area.

Kaufusi had tried to put a shot on Roosters opposite Egan Butcher only to miss the target and Smith raced in to shove the Queensland Origin forward in the back.

There were words exchanged before Kaufusi went back in to confront Smith and was penalised for standing in the play-the-ball area.

Whatever was said between the ex-Melbourne teammates, it flicked a switch inside Felise.

For the next 46 minutes, Kaufusi made it personal against premiership favourites the Roosters and went on a mission to ensure the dawn of the Dolphins began with one the great underdog upsets.

As Roosters coach Trent Robinson pointed out afterwards, the Tricolours were outplayed in every aspect of the contest.

The other standout performer for the Dolphins was hooker Jeremy Marshall-King.

For all the hype about Smith being the biggest purchase of the summer and the hooker to take the Roosters to the next level, the Kiwi Test no.9 and Jake Turpin were completely outplayed by Marshall-King scheming through the middle.

Marshall-King won Canterbury-Bankstown’s player of the year in 2022 but with Reed Mahoney arriving last November he needed to find a new club.

He’s found a home at the NRL’s newest team and under one of the game’s greatest-ever coaches.

What were your likes and dislikes from Round 1?