NRL 2024: Dolphins confident Wayne Bennett’s successor Kristian Woolf won’t suffer same fate as Jason Demetriou

Sacked South Sydney coach Jason Demetriou has joined a long line of coaches to struggle succeeding Wayne Bennett, but the Dolphins are confident their next coach will avoid the curse.

Kristian Woolf will lead the Dolphins in 2025. Picture: NRL Imagery

The Dolphins are confident Kristian Woolf will buck the trend of Wayne Bennett’s failed successors when he takes over the NRL’s youngest club.

Bennett is set to depart Redcliffe at season’s end after confirming his interest in replacing sacked South Sydney coach Jason Demetriou next year.

Demetriou was given his marching orders at Redfern on Tuesday night, paving the way for Bennett to return to the Rabbitohs club he guided to the 2021 NRL grand final during a three-season stint.

Bennett, 74, inked a three-year contract with the Dolphins in 2021 after the club secured the NRL’s 17th licence to enter the competition from 2023.

As part of the Dolphins’ planning, Bennett was involved in the process to appoint assistant coach Woolf with a view to him taking over as head coach from 2025.

At the time, Bennett was unsure if he wanted to continue head coaching following his initial three years in charge of the Dolphins.

Now that time has arrived, Bennett is not ready to give the game away and will enter talks with the Rabbitohs about a possible return to Redfern, all but ending the Dolphins’ hopes of retaining the seven-time premiership coach.

What is certain is Bennett will not coach the Dolphins next year and hand the Redcliffe reins to Woolf, a three-time Super League premiership-winning mentor who’s helped transform Tonga into a Test powerhouse.

Kristian Woolf will lead the Dolphins in 2025. Picture: NRL Imagery

The Bennett-Woolf succession plan has been structured similarly to South Sydney’s ultimately failed Demetriou era, but Dolphins CEO Terry Reader said the club was confident of Woolf making a successful transition.

“The biggest difference out of all of this is Kristian has already been an (elite level) head coach,” he said.

“Our succession plan involved Wayne and he was part of it. When we came together and worked out who was going to be his assistant coaches, we wanted a plan in place so we had stability and credibility for our club.

“That included finding an assistant coach that would take over from Wayne at the end of the 2024 season.

“The club was involved as well as Wayne and we decided on Kristian Woolf, who had served a wonderful apprenticeship and has been a head coach already.

“He’s been one of the most successful Super League coaches with three premierships and also turned Tonga into one of the best Test nations under his watch over 10 years.

“If you’re comparing us to other clubs where coaches have succeeded Wayne, Kristian isn’t an assistant coach we’re hoping knows how to be a head coach. He’s a very successful head coach already.

“He could have had his choice of a couple of jobs in 2023 but chose to come under Wayne for a couple of years and then take over in 2025.”

Demetriou has become the latest in a long line of coaches to struggle in life after Bennett.

Ivan Henjak (52.9 per cent winning record at the Broncos), Steve Price (38.3 per cent at Dragons), Nathan Brown (25.5 per cent at Knights), Anthony Seibold (36.8 per cent at Broncos) and Demetriou (51.7 per cent) have all been sacked following relatively short stints following Bennett.

But the Dolphins’ appointment of Woolf has been carefully thought out.

Woolf, 48, has spent the past two decades working his way up the coaching ranks, beginning at the North Queensland Cowboys in 2005.

He was the Townsville Blackhawks’ foundation coach in the Queensland Cup and bounced around assistant roles at the Knights and Broncos before taking over St Helens in England, winning three straight titles from 2020-22 before securing a role with the Dolphins.

Jason Demetriou with Wayne Bennett at Rabbitohs training. Picture. Phil Hillyard

At the time of securing Woolf as his assistant for two seasons before a head coaching ascension, Bennett said his chief assistant was ready to take the next step in his coaching career.

“Kristian is ready for the NRL,” Bennett said.

“I chose him because I believe he has done a great apprenticeship. He has been an assistant, but more importantly, he has coached his own teams in the Queensland Cup and has done a great job with St Helens.

“If you want to survive in the NRL these days, your best journey is to go and learn and be prepared to make sacrifices with your family, moving everywhere and anywhere.

“I believe you need to be a Queenslander to coach the Dolphins. You have to get Queensland. The majority of Queensland NRL clubs have Queensland kids.

“I’m not saying other coaches can’t be successful but you have to get Queenslanders. The Queensland people are different. It’s just a gut feel. It’s something that lives inside you

“I like his qualities and what he stands for. He is Mt Isa born and you don’t need much more toughness than that. I just know he’s not a wimp.”

Bennett’s fingerprints have been all over the Woolf succession plan and the initial set up of the Dolphins as an NRL club.

Wayne Bennett and assistant coach Ivan Henjak at Brisbane Broncos training.

Only time will tell whether Woolf will flourish batting after Bennett, but the Dolphins believe the building blocks for success have been laid instead of the club chasing immediate gratification in the NRL.

Woolf will inherit an improving roster with the likes of Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, Tom Flegler and Herbie Farnworth entering the peak of their careers and young guns Isaiya Katoa, Kulikefu Finefeuiaki and Max Plath coming through the ranks.

“Wayne’s been wonderful,” Reader said.

“We haven’t rushed signings. We’ve waited for the right players and not just signed any because we’ve got money.

“It wasn’t about one year. It was about setting the club up for the future.

“Woolfy didn’t just say ‘yes’. He dug deep into it all and wanted to see how we would set things up.

“He wanted to make sure we invested into our game development and pathways programs. That’s important for success.

“We’ve got the best coach there’s ever been and another we think very highly of who has already got runs on the board in the Super League and international arena coming in after Wayne.

“Kristian knows what’s involved and what has to happen. We’ve been very lucky to be able to have that structure.”

Originally published as NRL 2024: Dolphins confident Wayne Bennett’s successor Kristian Woolf won’t suffer same fate as Jason Demetriou