The Dolphins have continued their remarkable start to NRL life, coach Wayne Bennett labelling them a "special team" as they defied the conditions, a controversial sin bin and a 12-point deficit to beat Canberra 20-14.

After blitzing the Roosters on a dry Suncorp Stadium track in their NRL debut, Bennett's men showed they could do it on a soaking wet Saturday at their Redcliffe base.

They prevailed in driving rain at Kayo Stadium despite trailing 12-0 when hooker Jeremy Marshall-King was sin-binned late in the second half.

Hero fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow jumped on a loose ball to score before the break though, then the Dolphins gritted their teeth and defended for an enthralling 25 minutes.

Finally afforded some territory, Tom Gilbert was awarded a try after jostling with Matthew Timoko for a loose ball to level the scores with 18 minutes to play.

Tabuai-Fidow then ran smartly from dummy-half and drew a professional foul from Hudson Young.

The back-rower was sin-binned for the rest of the game and the Dolphins edged ahead by two points.

But Dolphins halfback Sean O'Sullivan soon joined Young on the bench.

He was penalised for a controversial hit that was deemed late and high on Corey Harawira-Naera, who had grubbered in behind him while running at full pace into the defensive line.

Yet the Dolphins had the final say when teenage five-eighth Isaiya Katoa offloaded to Tabuai-Fidow for his second try to send the soaked 10,000-strong crowd into raptures.

Bennett disagreed with both second-half sin-bins as he tried hard to hide the joy as the Dolphins became just the third team, after Brisbane - who he also coached - and Melbourne, to win their first two NRL games.

"Only special teams can do those types of things," he said.

"Just refusing to give in; some of the players we bought knew had those qualities, that's the basis of it all.

"Leaders lead and others follow them and that's what we're doing."

Canberra's Jack Wighton was everywhere in the first 25 minutes, touching the ball 14 times and also leaping to dislodge Jamayne Isaako of possession as he lunged for the corner.

The Raiders five-eighth had already crossed himself, wandering to the right edge and surging over to break the Dolphins' defence after some sustained pressure.

The Raiders found space down the right 15 minutes later, Nick Cotric's converted try making it 10-0.

Marshall-King was then sin-binned and placed on report for a hip-drop tackle on Corey Horsburgh.

But the Dolphins scored while a man down to breath life into the contest, Sebastian Kris fumbling a Sean O'Sullivan grubber kick and allowing Tabuai-Fidow to plant the seeds for their incredible comeback.

The Raiders' defeat follows a gutting one-point loss to North Queensland to begin the season.

Coach Stuart bit his lip when asked for his thoughts on the Gilbert try and late Young sin bin.

"I don't know if it changes it ... (Wayne's) done a good job with them," he said.

"It was tough; both teams threw a lot of effort in there and there's always one team disappointed and that's us."