Full of wise old heads and wild new talent, these NRL rookies are worth watching
Hate the Broncos? Love an underdog? Respect rugby league tradition? Then the Dolphins tick all your boxes, writes Jim Tucker.
The Dolphins know exactly the wild ride they are in for as Australia’s newest professional footy team. Great things or the graveyard are the extremes.
Some would have you imagine that starting up a new NRL club is akin to having more shares in Tesla than Elon Musk. The reality is much different.
For every ACT Brumbies (rugby union) making a flying start, there’s a tortured, drawn-out labour like the birth of the Brisbane Bears (AFL).
For every promising start-up like the North Queensland Cowboys who finally celebrated the Holy Grail of a NRL premiership, there’s a Gold Coast United (A-League) who disappear off the map after three seasons.
The value of having a wise old head like Wayne Bennett at the helm isn’t for the instant fix of a win in Sunday’s opening game although that would be genius.
Establishing a new footy club is an investment in the future, not an Oz Lotto bonanza on Sunday. At best, this inaugural season for the Dolphins will be rocks and diamonds on the field, a cherished upset or four and avoiding the wooden spoon. Anywhere but the bottom four is the stuff of dreams.
More important will be showing signs of a steady climb to establishing a unique club identity not an Aldi copy of the Brisbane Broncos. Bennett is the proven coach and life mentor who can shape a team with values you can count on and find a budding superstar.
The special embrace of home games will come from the fans.
The Dolphins aren’t a club invented from scratch like the failed South Queensland Crushers. They have the 75-year history of the Redcliffe Dolphins as backbone, including that period in the 1980s when a big plastic Colonel Sanders head adorned the front of the jersey through a Kentucky Fried Chicken sponsorship.
The diehard support of Redcliffe fans will be vital to get through the dry gullies that are certain in this long-term vision.
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The club’s charter is broader to represent the Moreton Bay Region and north to the Capricornia area centred around Rockhampton.
Bennett is convinced the Dolphins are a valuable addition to the landscape with a built-in bonus for league lovers in Queensland.
“I’ve no doubt Broncos-Dolphins games will be the Battle of Brisbane in a tremendous rivalry,” Bennett has said in variations for months.
“It’s real. It’s not something you have to make up.”
All can build into reasons to support a red jersey that, until now, only has true beauty for those who live on the Redcliffe peninsula.
Understanding the “why” behind the Dolphins is important. They have sound financial backing, for sure, but they create what all sporting markets crave…a bankable rivalry.
A second rugby league team for Brisbane creates an instant “Broncos v upstarts” collision. A divided Brisbane is great in footy terms although a Carlton v Collingwood thing needs a long tapestry of games, controversies, refereeing blunders, unjust treatment, defections, heroes and villains to flesh it out.
We have the start to it. Before a footy has been kicked, “feud” is more apt for the tug-of-war over this player or that schoolboy star.
Having Bennett in the middle of it is perfect theatre. He was Anakin Skywalker with all the virtuous hero qualities when the Broncos were born in 1988.
To the Broncos, he is now Darth Vadar, a tall, creased face thorn in shadows and with tricks up every sleeve.
For those fans of the English Premier league, you know exactly the friction, drama and riveting history to the rivalry clashes that make the pulse quicken.
The fierce Merseyside derby between Liverpool and Everton is one classic example. The home stadiums of the two clubs are just 970m apart. You can see Anfield from Goodison Park.
Likewise, the Broncos and Dolphins may share the same city but they want little else in common. The Dolphins will pick up an anti-Broncos fan following for sure to go with the diehards who have always been Redcliffe Dolphins supporters.
The NRL has some wonderful rivalries embedded already…Dragons v Sharks, Souths v Roosters, Eels v Panthers, Broncos v Cowboys and so it goes.
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Because the Dolphins do have a history, Sunday’s opener against the Roosters at Suncorp Stadium has a deeply connected theme. The great Arthur Beetson was revered at both Redcliffe and the Easts Roosters he excelled with in Sydney.
There have been some trade-offs to the Dolphins lift-off.
For the obvious commercial advantages, they have had to give up one of their major advantages…being able to play home games at their hostile, compact 10,000-seat home patch at Redcliffe.
They will play only three of their home games at their traditional home at Dolphin Stadium, now branded as Kayo Stadium.
To get the financial bang from bigger crowds, there are seven matches booked for Suncorp Stadium where Sunday’s opener is being staged.
There’ll be some Dolphins fans who preferred never to cross the old Hornibrook Bridge except when going on annual holidays. The Kayo Stadium buzz will be altogether different which means the Round Two clash against the Canberra Raiders on March 11 will be the real christening of the club in many eyes.
True home ground advantage is a real thing. When the Brumbies launched in Super Rugby in 1996, they won 13 straight home games in Canberra to build a fortress. It helped build the club.
Suncorp Stadium is a fortress to Queensland’s State of Origin team but there’ll be newer Dolphins less acquainted with it than some of their rivals.
Remember the Crushers? Brisbane’s first “second rugby league team” was born in a blaze of hope and expectation to play the 1995 season.
There was a Dad’s Army vein to the initial side under 33-year-old skipper Mario Fenech.
There were ill-fated signings from rugby union like Garrick Morgan and the front office made missteps. There was even confusion over who should be coach.
Even though the Crushers lasted just three seasons and two wooden spoons, the club was the springboard for quality players like Travis Norton and Mark Tookey.
Norton debuted for the Crushers while still a teenager and went on to a fine career with Canterbury, the Cowboys and Queensland. It is Bennett’s hope that he unearths young forwards just like him to energise the Dolphins.
Sports fans have become notorious for how quickly they need results to feel sated.
There will be vitriol over the next few months when the Dolphins lose a few games in a row and cop a 40-point spanking somewhere. Heads will be shaking.
There’ll be high moments too if Felise Kaufusi and Jesse Bromwich wind up at full throttle consistently and a sharp, little known back becomes the club’s first cult hero.
Stay the course. The Dolphins are good for rugby league and good for Brisbane.
Jim Tucker has specialised in sport, the wider impacts and features for most of his 40 years writing in the media. He spent youthful Saturdays on the hill at Brookvale Oval before the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles had won a premiership.
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