We all have heard about the news in the past few weeks that Queensland Cup team the Redcliffe Dolphins have been granted a license to join the NRL in 2023, with high profile coach Wayne Bennett to coach the side.
Although they won’t be known as Redcliffe. They won’t even be named after any location. They are names simply the Dolphins.
And after watching Western United in the A-League, Australia’s top round-ball football league, they’re set to go down the same path.
For those who don’t follow Australian football, a bit of background information.
Western United received a license to enter the A-League starting from the 2019-20 season back in December 2018, although the FFA (now FA) didn’t know they were admitting Western United FC.
The only thing they knew was that they were admitting the Western Melbourne Group, a club for the western suburbs of Melbourne, to be based in the suburb of Tarneit at a brand new 15,000-seat stadium that they would own.
But since then, they’ve been all over the place.
(Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
They started off playing at the 36,000-seat GMHBA stadium in Geelong, about an hour and a bit west of the Melbourne CBD.
That was part of the reason the club was known as Western United. They didn’t think people from Geelong would support a team with Melbourne in its name.
They also took games to Ballarat and Footscray, both of which are oval stadiums and an hour and 15 minutes away from each other. They have also taken games to Launceston in Tasmania.
Last season they also played a lot of their games at AAMI Park right in the centre of Melbourne, which is also the home of Melbourne City, Melbourne Victory, Melbourne Storm and the Melbourne Rebels.
That was despite a lot of the foundation members of this club saying they were able to differentiate themselves from Melbourne.
They even tried to play games at Lakeside Stadium, which is in the South of Melbourne, although old NSL club South Melbourne FC stopped that from happening.
So Western United FC have been all over the place since their foundation, and no one outside of A-League fans knows where they are from, and sadly the Dolphins are going down the same path.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Despite being based 40 minutes north of Brisbane, they are still a Brisbane team, and they will have to compete with the Brisbane Broncos, who when they were winning, had the most amount of memberships in the NRL.
They had 6000 or 7000 more than South Sydney, who were the second biggest. The Broncos are still in the top three for memberships.
The Dolphins are already failing to compete, saying they will play the majority of their home games at Suncorp Stadium, which is the Broncos’ home.
There are people out there who want to see NRL played at Suncorp Stadium every week, and will attend matches accordingly, but these people won’t be Dolphins fans. They’ll stick with the Broncos.
They are promising to also play games at their home of Moreton Daily Stadium, but also Sunshine Coast Stadium.
This could go a lot like the Northern Eagles’ failure of the early 2000s, where people from the Central Coast didn’t want to support a mainly Sydney-based team, and would rather wait for their own team.
So far I’m struggling to see how this club is going to differentiate themselves from the Brisbane Broncos, and actually expand the game, rather than just splitting the existing pie into two pieces.
(Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)
So what should they do? Well first of all, what’s wrong with Moreton Daily Stadium?
The ground can hold 11,500 people, and I’m sure they’d be able to get some government funding to up the capacity to around 15,000, as we know how much governments love expansion teams.
A capacity of 15,000 is perfect for them. It’s better seeing a packed house in a 15,000 ground then seeing a 50,000 ground only a quarter full.
Secondly, they need to accept that they aren’t going to appeal to all of Brisbane.
They’re the only team from Moreton Bay in the Queensland Cup, and they should be proud of that.
That’s nearly 500,000 people they represent, about the same as the population of Newcastle.
There’s one advantage the Dolphins have over Western United FC, and that’s that they are an existing club, with fans.
They need to make sure they don’t lose these fans and their history, and keep Redcliffe on the shirt.
If I was in charge, I’d keep the club being known as the Redcliffe Dolphins, but I’d put Moreton Bay on the club’s logo.
That is a bit like how West Ham United in England have London on the bottom of their badge.
At the moment, the Dolphins are nothing for everyone, but they’re a club with history.
They need to try to be everything for some people, or they’ll end up like Western United, a nothing club trying to be for everyone.
Michael Dalton
Guest
I totally agree it also gives them the ability to reach as far up as Central QLD
sheek
Roar Guru
Take6, Did you hear about the Nigerian soccer team at Rio 2016? They were a favourite for the gold medal, but bombed in the their pool. The captain was so mortified to hear about all the fans who had travelled from Nigeria to Brazil to watch their team play & waste their money. The captain promised they would be returned all their money as soon as they provided their banking details.
sheek
Roar Guru
I still call Western Bulldogs Footscray.
sheek
Roar Guru
Tom G, My understanding is it was the Dolphins board, & not the NRL, that punted the name Redcliffe. If we're going to stick the boot in, perhaps we should be sure who we stick the boot into!
sheek
Roar Guru
They say the thing about common sense is that it's not common at all. Before the politically correct police had their way it used to be easy to identify the 4 footy codes played in this country. 'Footy' was Australian football; 'soccer' was association football; 'rugby' was rugby union & 'league' was rugby league. It's okay for those countries with one football code to call it football, but problematic for countries with more than one footy code. Anyway, enough of that. I've already lost interest in the Dolphins. If they're too stupid, arrogant, greedy, ignorant, lazy, insensitive, etc, etc, etc, to respect their history, tradition, heritage & tribalism of retaining the name Redcliffe, then they don't deserve any success whatsoever.
DangeMouse
Guest
I thought someone had finally realised they are going to be the Western team. Keep the Redcliffe name and if they fail in Brisbane - relocate them to REDCLIFFE in WA. That would be expansion of the code. It would give them a 2nd covid home
Rellum
Roar Guru
Good for you, doesn't mean I am wrong
Jordan Klingsporn
Roar Guru
Different as it's a club that already had a lot of fans Redcliffe don't have as a big a profile that Footscray had in the mid 90s
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
Army drill Sergeant... Did that get changed after posting??
Rabbitz
Roar Guru
Unfortunately, The Roar rarely subs articles these days. A decade or more ago they did, and it is one of the reasons I actually had to lift my game - it ended up with a career change and now I have the job title of Senior Author. My high school English teacher would never believe it!
Prince of Redcliffe
Guest
Moreton Bay - Sunshine Coast Dolphins That club that trains at Redcliffe, plays most their games at Suncorp, a few at Redcliffe and a few at Sunshine Coast. You little beauty. Nothing like Northern Eagles as the ‘ Moreton Bay - Sunshine Coast Dolphins’ are not a merged club. Solid board. Solid history. You little beauty
Prince of Redcliffe
Guest
Moreton Bay - Sunshine Coast Dolphins. Redcliffe based club Brisbane Broncos Red Hill based club South Sydney Rabbitohs Redfern based club St George Illawarra Dragons Wollongong based club Sydney Roosters Bondi based club West Tigers Concord based club North Queensland Cowboys Townsville based club Etc etc
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
I blame Tony. He had me up at the crack of dawn like an Army are Sergeant. :laughing:
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
Most of my typos are from FTS (Fat Thumb Syndrome) when I am typing on my phone. Some are autocorrect while others are (as we say in IT) ID10T (ID-10-T) errors! The above was the latter. I blame Tony. He had me up at the crack of dawn like an Army are Sergeant. :laughing: :silly:
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
Most of my typos are from FTS (Fat Thumb Syndrome) when I am typing on my phone. Some are autocorrect while others are (as we say in IT) ID10T (ID-10-T) errors! The above was the latter. :silly: Let's give the author the benefit of the doubt and call that one a typo. I once worked for a short period (as an intern) for the Sun Newspaper and at one point I wanted to be a journalist. So I know how the system works with editors and sub-editors. Mistakes like that aren't just on one person.
Opposed Session
Roar Rookie
While technically part of “greater” Brisbane, Redcliffe is a suburb in the Moreton Bay Regional Council. Redcliffe itself sits 8kms outside of the Brisbane city council limits. MB identifying as regional council would suggest even they don’t believe they are part of Brisbane. Additionally if you have your own taxi and bus systems exclusive to your region, then your not really identifying as part of the whole. Brisbane is territorial, if you’re a southsider you don’t enjoy the north and vice versa. So to say Redcliffe is Brisbane is like saying Logan, Ipswich and Redcliffe are one and the same. Good luck telling those people they are neighbours that all live in Brisbane.
Monorchid
Roar Rookie
You're quite right Randy. But you're nitpicking. If you're talking about the Brisbane Metropolitan Area, or the Greater Brisbane Area, Redcliffe lies within the defined boundary for this area. Of course, Brisbane City is just Brisbane, and Redcliffe is not part of Brisbane City and never was. And when we're talking football, surely we mean Brisbane City. To say that Redcliffe is part of Brisbane when it lies in a completely different Council doesn't make much sense. And that's no doubt why the franchise never intended that it be called the Brisbane Dolphins. Then it would be a fish out of water.
Rellum
Roar Guru
You can tell I typed that I my phone quickly :happy:
Randy
Roar Rookie
you're wrong. Redcliffe is still part of the Brisbane metropolitan area. Its still counted as Brisbane.
Boz
Guest
They should be called the Brisbane Dolphins and train at Redcliffe. The whole idea of a second Brisbane team was to have NRL in the city every week, played out of Suncorp, not a suburban Brisbane team representing only a part of the city. This would also make way for further expansion in future with the Ipswich Jets and Sunshine Coast Falcons a possibility down the track, with their own grounds.