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The Dolphins were on a hiding to nothing ever since they were granted entry into the NRL.
Cameron Munster’s decision to extend his time at Melbourne is the latest in a long line of marquee players who the Dolphins tried to lure to Redcliffe.
Who could blame him for choosing slightly less to stay at a perennially successful club like the Storm for the prime years of his career rather than take a gamble on a start-up side that has been stymied from the get-go.
The NRL announced the Dolphins had won the race over the Ipswich Jets and Brisbane Firehawks to be the 17th team almost a year ago to the day – it was October 13, 2021. That was just 18 days before rival teams could table offers for rival players for the 2023 season.
Unlike other professional sports leagues where expansion teams are given benefits like draft picks or salary cap compensation, the Dolphins were thrown in at the deep end.
And they’ve been sinking ever since.
Their recruitment strategy was to use record-breaking coach Wayne Bennett as the magnet to attract a “big three or four” signatures to fill the key spine positions with Munster at the top of that hit list.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
The opposite has occurred – they’ve filled the pack and backline with solid players but lack genuine star power in the spine.
They’ve tried to recruit a conga line of top-line talent and every time, the star player has decided the grass is greener closer to home than the new frontier north-east of Brisbane.
Some held extensive discussions, some were floated in the media with Bennett saying he’d be interested if they were like Jason Taumalolo and David Fifita.
But all the free agents – Kalyn Ponga, Ryan Papenhuyzen, Brandon Smith, Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, Jahrome Hughes, Ryan Matterson, Harry Grant, Christian Welch, Reed Mahoney, Viliame Kikau, Scott Drinkwater, Herbie Farnworth and now Munster – have re-signed at their existing locations or taken up lucrative deals elsewhere in the cases of Mahoney, Smith and Kikau.
Initially they were hopeful of Munster getting an early release then they were content to wait for 2024 when the Storm said he would not be allowed to walk early. They then upped their original lowball offer and the Dolphins didn’t stand a chance.
Redcliffe’s attention now turns to salvaging ’24 and the free agents for that season but it is likely they will again be used as a bargaining tool by player agents to drive up the price of their big names.
Latrell Mitchell, Cody Walker, Mitchell Moses, Dylan Brown, Matt Burton and Sam Walker are the high-profile playmakers who’ll be free agents – do you see any of them leaving their current club to link with the Dolphins? Unlikely.
Sadly, they’re becoming the Wests Tigers of the north – linked to every player but never landing a blow when it comes to signing representative level talent.
Looking at the roster Bennett and CEO Terry Reader have assembled for the foundation season and there’s probably three players of representative standard who are in or entering the prime years of their career – Cowboys duo Tom Gilbert and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, and Canterbury’s Kiwi hooker Jeremy Marshall-King.
They landed Gilbert because he needed to move back to Brisbane due to personal reasons while the Hammer was allowed a release from the final year of his deal because he was the odd man out in a stacked North Queensland backline.
It’s odd the Cowboys chose to let him walk rather than veteran centre Peta Hiku, who also only has one year left on his deal.
Bennett has continually said over the past 12 months that he’s not panicking about the new club’s inability to ink a deal with a franchise cornerpiece.
He says they’ll be competitive and they’re in it for the long haul.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
They’ve got enough solid veterans like Felise Kaufusi, Jesse and Kenny Bromwich and Euan Aitken to ensure they won’t be flogged every week and journeymen like Sean O’Sullivan and Edrick Lee can be useful contributors.
However, rival teams won’t be looking at the schedule with too much trepidation when they see the Dolphins as their opposition.
Some people didn’t like the comparisons between the Dolphins and the ill-fated South Queensland Crushers early in this recruiting process but with all due respect to the likes of Jarrod Wallace, Anthony Milford, Herman Ese’ese, Mark Nicholls, Kodi Nikorima and Brenko Lee, it would be a surprise if the best years of their career are still ahead of them.
| Euan Aitken | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Jack Bostock | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| Jesse Bromwich | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Kenny Bromwich | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| JJ Collins | 2023 | ||
| Herman Ese’ese | 2023 | ||
| Tom Gilbert | 2023 | ||
| Jamayne Isaako | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| Robert Jennings | 2023 | 2024 | MO |
| Isaiya Katoa | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| Felise Kaufusi | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| Brenko Lee | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Edrick Lee | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Connelly Lemuelu | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Jeremy Marshall-King | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Anthony Milford | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Mark Nicholls | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Kodi Nikorima | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Sean O’Sullivan | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| Ray Stone | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Mason Teague | 2023 | ||
| Valynce Te Whare | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Jarrod Wallace | 2023 | 2024 |
When the NRL opts to expand to an 18th team in the next few years, history will repeat for that franchise whether it’s based in Perth, New Zealand or anywhere in between if the club is not given a runway of at least two years before its opening game.
A new club can’t just be a pawn for the league’s quest to recoup much-needed fortunes in the next TV rights deal because the NRL will then have an extra match per round.
Unlike the AFL which has been able to sustain the body blows of the Gold Coast Suns and GWS Giants being largely unsuccessful and making little inroads in their new markets, the NRL is not financially stable enough to have poorly performed outposts diluting the talent and adding an extra game to the round which will garner little interest.
The NRL’s most recent new outfit, Gold Coast Titans, have won just one playoff match in 16 seasons. The Crushers, Reds, Rams, Mariners and Chargers perished in the 1990s while the Warriors are preparing for their 28th season still with an empty trophy cabinet.
Melbourne and the Cowboys are the only two expansion success stories of the past 30 years – the Storm got lucky because they feasted on the bones of Super League sacrificial lambs while North Queensland were easybeats for their first nine seasons before they started investing in local talent.
Good luck, Dolphins, you’re gonna need it.