NRL: Newcastle Knights secure last-gasp 26-20 win over Dolphins in Perth

Newcastle Knights have upset the Dolphins by stealing near last-minute victory and keeping their NRL finals hopes alive in the process with a 26-20 win at HBF Park.
In a topsy-turvy game played in front of 10,077 fans, the Knights raced out to a 16-4 lead, only for the Dolphins to respond with 16 unanswered points of their own.
Bradman Best's second try of the game levelled scores late, before Newcastle were controversially denied a Jayden Brailey try with five minutes to play due to a forward pass.
However, the irrepressible Best had the final say after the Dolphins failed to deal with a high ball, and the talismanic centre shrugged off tacklers before offloading to Brodie Jones for a last-gasp try with just over a minute on the clock.
After a game which ebbed and flowed, the Dolphins will be fuming they let slip a lead with less than 20 minutes to play and all the ascendancy.
With Newcastle just four points off the top eight heading into the game, the win will be a crucial one for their finals hopes.
It took five minutes for Newcastle to rocket into the league as Queensland Origin star Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow failed to corral a high ball under pressure from Dominic Young, allowing a gleeful Fletcher Sharpe to pounce.
But the Dolphins' 6-0 lead was quickly cut to two points, when Kodi Nikorima combined with Herbie Farnworth and Jack Bostock down the left edge, and the former finished off his own good work with a try.
Newcastle full-back Kalyn Ponga showed no ill-effects from a physical State of Origin battle mid-week, and his clever grubber kick allowed the returning Best to score, before Dane Gagai's conversion nudged the lead to 12-4.
The Knights backs were showing their wares and it was the impressive Best who linked with Ponga and Jack Cogger to tee up a surging James Schiller run down the wing in the 24th minute.
In the ensuing phases, Cogger and Gagai combined and Young found space to touch down on the right side and the score was 16-4.
The Dolphins' task got tougher when they lost Bostock to a knee injury as the centre crumpled while attempting to bring the ball back outside of his own 10m.
After a strong start, Newcastle's defence slowly started to give way and penalties began to accumulate deep inside their own territory, allowing Isaiya Katoa to pick out Connolly Lemuelu's fine line and the replacement's converted try narrowed the deficit to 16-10 at the break.
Both teams probed early in the second half but were unable to find a way through, until a sweeping Dolphins move down the left saw Gagai sin-binned for holding back Herbie Farnworth.
Three minutes later, the Knights were made to pay when influential Katoa's cut-out pass was flipped on by Kurt Donoghue and Isaako placed down in the corner, although he was unable to convert his own try.
Down by two, the Dolphins hit the front in the 61st minute through another free-flowing move out of their own half down the left wing, with Farnworth picking out Jake Averillo, who in turn picked out Tabuai-Fidow's storming run.
However, the Knights were gifted an immediate chance to respond when Francis Molo fumbled on the kick-off return.
The influence of Newcastle's backs had been quelled up to that point in the second half, but it was déjà vu all over again as another Ponga grubber was once again slammed down by Best, although Gagai's missed conversion meant the score stayed at 20-20.
And with five minutes to go, the Knights thought they had won it when Best and Ponga's sublime play-making opened up the Dolphins, but the referee deemed Schiller's pass to a wide open Brailey went forward.
Fortunately for the Knights, they proved to have the last laugh when the Dolphins could not corral a high ball and Best, when given an inch, took a mile to play in Jones.

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