Two close games of footy, both decided by a couple of points, have taken place on the first Friday night of the year. 

Newcastle and Souths begin the year as winners.

Wests are left wondering what went wrong in the second half.

The Dolphins will board a charter flight tomorrow, attempting to get home before Tropical Cyclone Alfred makes landfall.

ABC Sport will be back tomorrow with Saturday rugby league. 

We hope you join us then.

Goodnight.

Dolphins player Josh Kerr has spoken to ABC Sport following his side's two-point loss to Souths. 

The match was moved to Sydney by the league, as Tropical Cyclone Alfred nears landfall in south-east Queensland. 

Kerr refused to make the cyclone an excuse for the loss.

"If you want to find excuses, you will," Kerr says.

"There’s a lot of people in the SES, the first responders up in Queensland that are going through a hell of a lot right now. They’re out there saving lives, we’re here playing football.

"I get that it’s probably not the greatest preparation, but we’re not saving lives, we’re rugby league players. We get to come out and do this great game while back home our families are going through a hell of a lot.

"I get that you can make an excuse out of that, but we just don’t want to be those people. There’s a lot of people going through a lot of harder s*** than we are right now.

"Our job right now is, you know what, we get to get out of a cyclone, come down and play our game that we've loved growing up and watching, dreaming about playing … we get an opportunity to do that.

"So we don't want to say that that's an excuse. I just feel like there's a lot of people doing it harder."

South Sydney centre Jack Wighton has joined ABC Sport after the Rabbitohs' hard-fought win.

Clearly exhausted after the first game of the season, it is fair to say Jack may not have anticipated the speed of play tonight.

"Round one was supposed to start slower than the rest of the year, but that was flat out," he says.

"It's just the start. You don't win grand finals this time of year."

— reporting with AAP

Wayne Bennett has denied his former apprentice Kristian Woolf an against-all-odds first win as an NRL head coach as South Sydney ran out 16-14 victors in their relocated clash with the Dolphins.

Fill-in halfback Jamie Humphreys gave Bennett plenty to think about in Friday night's game, which was moved 900km south to Parramatta and out of the path of Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

The cyclone warning forced the Dolphins to rush to Sydney on Wednesday night, leaving behind three players who opted to stay with their families, as they began their Woolf era.

But apart from Souths' error-prone start to the second half, second-gamer Humphreys and Cody Walker connected better than the Dolphins halves to help the Rabbitohs start Bennett's second coming with a bang.

Humphreys looked unfazed taking on the bulk of kicking duties in only his second NRL game.

The most memorable of those kicks was a cross-field bomb that put popular winger Tyrone Munro in for the second of his two first-half tries.

Munro did not return after half-time, with early reports indicating a collarbone issue — the same injury that restricted him to only four games in 2024.

Englishman Lewis Dodd will now have to prove himself worthy of usurping winning halfback Humphreys on return from his one-game suspension.

The Dolphins hit the front for the first time in the second half, with a Walker knock-on allowing the visitors to cross for a second try in five minutes through new second-rower Max Plath.

But after Humphreys hit the post with an attempt at penalty goal that would have equalised, a shift left put Isaiah Tass in and lifted the Rabbitohs back on top as the final 10 minutes approached.

In his first game for 553 days, luckless Campbell Graham made a crucial try-saving cover tackle on Junior Tupou in the final 10 minutes to deny the Dolphins the chance to snatch the lead.

Graham had been playing out of position on Souths' right wing following the injury to Munro.

Injury-plagued Dolphins captain Tom Gilbert was also strong in his first game for 657 days, coming up with the offload that led Isaako to score the side's first try down the right.

Dolphins recruit Kulikefu Finefeuiaki is set to miss next week's clash with Newcastle after returning a category-one head injury assessment in the second half.

Rabbitohs centre Jack Wighton went on report for a raised forearm on Dolphins recruit Daniel Saifiti and could face scrutiny from the match review committee.

South Sydney has been denied a potentially match-winning try.

Dolphin winger Jamayne Isaako fielded a bomb, and then lost the ball in the tackle. It was picked up by Souths who scored, but the ref sent it to the Bunker as a no-try. 

The on-field call was Rabbitoh Jack Wighton stripped the ball from Isaako.

It is hard to say that Wighton was stripping at the ball. It looked like a loose carry from Isaako. But it would have been hard for the official in the Bunker to conclusively determine that. 

Souths maintain a two point lead, but the Dolphins still have life. 

Souths are holding on. They are desperate for fulltime. 

South Sydney have retaken the lead, this time through left winger Isaiah Tass.

The Rabbitohs got a repeat set of six, and were able to put together a nice set play, going to the left, and Tass dived and scored in the corner.

Jamie Humphreys had a chance to level the score at 14-all, but his penalty goal attempt hit the post. 

A relief for the Dolphins, who conceded the penalty when Herbie Farnworth pushed Souths' Lachlan Hubner in the face, leading to a scuffle.

The Dolphins are in again. Second-row forward  Max Plath scores.

Souths cannot get out of their own end with poor errors. 

A Cody Walker knock-on, off a pretty ordinary pass, gave the Dolphins another terrific chance. 

With a set restart, the Dolphins were able to make the Rabbitohs pay for their poor play. 

Jamayne Isaako kicks the conversion to give the visitors their first lead of the night.

The start of the second half has been all Dolphins, and they are rewarded with winger Jamayne Isaako scoring his second try. 

A terrific cut-out pass to the right from fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow created the space and led to the try. 

The Dolphins had made two previous trips into Souths' defensive 20 in this half, but lost the ball. 

This time, they make it count.

Isaako misses  the conversion, meaning Souths hold a four point lead, despite both teams scoring two tries each.

South Sydney kick-off, and we begin the second half of this Friday night clash. 

The Rabbitohs hold an eight-point lead, but the Dolphins will be expecting more from themselves in the second half.