By Nick Wright
Wayne Bennett was in no state to marvel nor reminisce about his time at the helm of the NRL’s newest outfit.
“I’m not in the mood for reflections,” the Dolphins coach said after his side fell agonisingly short of a maiden finals berth in Newcastle.
But for the club itself, the 74-year-old will leave for South Sydney confident the foundation for success had been laid.
Wayne Bennett and Sean O’Sullivan celebrate the Dolphins’ big win against the Broncos.Credit: NRL Photos
“I’ve got nothing but praise for the club and the direction it’s going. We’ve done a lot of things right, we’re a better team than last year, we only brought three players in from last year,” Bennett said.
“The club’s heading in the right direction.”
So, with the curtain drawn on his time at Redcliffe, where has he left his legacy as Kristian Woolf prepares to take the reins?
Building the foundations
When the Dolphins joined the NRL, nobody gave them a chance.
The inability to recruit a genuine marquee man in their first season was panned.
Many tipped them to collect the wooden spoon. They instead won their opening three games, finishing round 13 within two points of the top of the table, before injuries and suspensions cruelled their cause.
Fans have in turned followed in droves, with the club surpassing 35,000 members this year – putting them among the top sides in the league – and were on course for the finals before the wheels fell off in the second half of the year once again.
Irrespective of where they finished, they became a team built on hard work and doing the little things right, making the second-fewest errors in the competition this year – and fewest last year – to allow emerging rookie prospects Isaiya Katoa, Jack Bostock and Max Plath to find their feet in the NRL.
“As a team we’ve grown so much over the last two years. When I came up here I expected it to be pretty good, but what I’ve been through up here has been amazing – more than I could have asked for,” Bromwich said.
“The leadership group has done a really good job I’d say, it’s a real hard-working team, a team who doesn’t give up, and a team who trains pretty hard together and is pretty inclusive of everyone as well.
“I think it’s going to hit us all as we start getting older and the club starts growing more and more that we’re actually going to realise how big it was to be part of that inaugural team.”
Creating depth
Every club, at one point or another, is left decimated by injuries. But as a side still finding its feet and cementing its pathways, those setbacks are perhaps exposed more so for the Dolphins.
Season 2024 began with such promise.
Bennett had managed to bring representative stars Herbie Farnworth and Tom Flegler into the fold – two men fresh off a grand final campaign at the Broncos – as well as Jake Averillo, while Tom Gilbert was due back from a dislocated shoulder that prematurely ended his 2023.
Before the first whistle, disaster struck.
Gilbert fell to the turf in agony in the Dolphins’ final preseason trial. The worst was confirmed: a ruptured ACL.
Flegler soon followed, managing just four games before nerve damage in his shoulder ended his season, and threw his career in limbo.
Others would fall at stages – Jeremy Marshall-King and Euan Aitken among them – but with the foundations of their forward pack wiped out a major dent in the game plan was exposed. Like in their first year, they could not keep up with the rigours of a 27 round campaign.
Long-term, the club will need to rely on its academy pathways to blossom.
And those systems are beginning to reap rewards.
“We’ll have our first kids graduate from our academy that we set up in 2022 come into training full-time with the squad next year,” Dolphins chief executive Terry Reader said.
“We’re already starting to see that come through, we always said that would be a five-year process, but it’s a really important part of our club … the top doesn’t work without the bottom.
“In the next few years, we’ll be seeing our first one playing NRL – that’s the goal.”
Is Woolf the man to shake the Bennett curse?
He will be considered a rookie NRL coach, but Woolf is far from it.
The 49-year-old comes into the top job a proven winner: coaching St Helens to three-straight Super League titles, while making Tonga an international force with a 13-7 win-loss record.
There has been a concerning trend of coaches who take over from Bennett falling within a few years, but Dolphins star Kodi Nikorima was confident Woolf would not succumb in the same manner.
Rather, he believed after serving under Bennett, he would be empowered to evolve their game.
Kristian Woolf will take over the Dolphins for the 2025 season.Credit: NRL Photos
“He’s similar to Wayne with the approach he has, he doesn’t beat around the bush,” Nikorima said.
“He looks you between the eyes, which I like as a coach – someone who’s up front and honest. I’m sure once he gets the team by himself things will start to shape up how he’s planned.
“Woolfy is his own man … I can’t wait to play under him.”
Woolf will need to be on the hunt for a new captain to replace Bromwich, and will be praying Flegler and Gilbert make full recoveries.
But he will also welcome recruits Kulikefu Finefeuiaki and Junior Tupou from the Cowboys and Tigers respectively into the fold.
And the departing Bromwich believed Woolf would inherit a group ready to thrive.
“Wayne from day one let us know what he wanted, and it was our job as a leadership group to drive those standards,” Bromwich said.
“I feel that we’ve done that, I think moving forward Woolfy’s got a very good roster on his hands.
“I’m excited for the future of the club. These young guys out there are going to be better next year.”