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The Dolphins have been under constant pressure to sign a marquee player if they are to have any impact on the competition.
With so many reports surrounding the ‘requirement’ for the newest NRL franchise to lock in this magical signing, you can understand why the players that have already joined don’t agree.
“I thought having the captain of the New Zealand Kiwi side was having a marquee player,” Dolphins forward Tom Gilbert told The Roar regarding Jesse Bromwich.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that we have a good team here. And you can have these marquee players, but at the end of the day, you need to build a culture, you need to make sure people are getting the best out of each other.
“And you see marquee players go to other clubs and not do so well. And you never know, one of the young kids we signed up could be the next Cameron Munster. It’s our job as teammates and as a club to make sure we’re being the best day in and day out, and when all that stuff comes together, for any team, then you can expect to do your best on the weekend.”
Former Rabbitohs prop Mark Nicholls believes that it takes more than one big name to get the job done.
“If you have 17 committed blokes go out on the footy field and do the job, it doesn’t really matter who you have on your team. Rugby league has been played for over 100 years now and the same thing always happens. It’s the team of 17 that turns up and wants to run harder and tackle harder than the opposition,” said the foundation Dolphins prop.
“I’ve played in plenty of games where a team has been expected to win or lose and the results don’t happen the way the experts tip.”
With low expectations placed on the club’s success, Gilbert said the players weren’t letting that get in their heads.
“We’re just worried about controlling what we can control,” said the former Cowboy who made his Origin debut for Queensland this year.
“We can’t control what’s published out there about us. What we can control is how we turn up each day for training, how we prepare for our field sessions, gym sessions, how we recover, the food we put in our body.
“We can control how we interact with our fans and uphold ourselves around the place – they’re all good things that make you a better football player and a better person. If we can just worry about controlling them then I have no doubt the results and performances will come and that will put us in good stead for a good year next year.”
Tom Gilbert and Mark Nicholls power through off-season training. (Photo: dolphinsnrl.com.au)
After five seasons with the Rabbitohs, Nicholls would have loved to have left his old club on a high instead of one game short of a grand final appearance.
“I had a great five years at Souths and played five prelims and a Grand Final. At the start I would have taken that in a heartbeat but to lose that last game against Penrith three years in a row hurt,” said Nicholls.
“For a couple of weeks afterwards, I kept going through the game in my mind. And we were 12-0 up with five minutes to go before half-time. But sometimes that’s just how footy goes.”
Gilbert was in a similar situation, with his final game for the Cowboys being their 24-20 preliminary finals loss to the Eels. The 22-year-old admitted it was difficult to leave North Queensland after three seasons, but there was ‘always comfort’ in his decision to head to Redcliffe.
“Obviously, it was hard. Not just after the year that we had, personally, but some of the friends I made up there. I’m extremely close with them. And they felt like my family. And obviously the club I think’s going to be a powerhouse for the next few years.
“But there was the opportunity to be back home and close to my family. And being under Wayne Bennett was a real drawing factor.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
“I was really excited to become an inaugural member of the squad and I was really excited to be home with the family. To be under Wayne and a few of the older boys like the Bromwich brothers and Felise Kaufusi, it ticked so many boxes and gave me a lot of comfort. I don’t have any regrets about leaving.
“I’m a Dolphin now and fully committed to upholding the Dolphins’ values and just becoming a good Dolphins player and a good person away from it for the club.”
Family and being part of a brand-new club were also factors for Nicholls making the move north.
“It’s a foundation club – the club itself has been around for a long time, but it’s the first time in the NRL. The chance to make history and at the back end of my career – that’s exciting,” said Nicholls.
“And it was also a good chance to live in Queensland. My wife and I are both from country NSW, so we never really felt settled in Sydney. And we’ve always thought about where we will live after Sydney to be fair. And then in the (Covid) bubble we said, ‘Queensland is pretty nice, we see ourselves living here’.
“And then a few months later the call came, and I knew that Wayne was coaching so to get back under Wayne was a good feeling as well.”
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Bennett was very keen to have Nicholls back on his roster, with just a simple message from coach to player saying, ‘Do you want to have some fun?’
“Mark is one of those understated players in the game but I always valued him since the day I went to South Sydney,” Bennett told AAP.
“He is one of those guys you can trust and totally rely on. That’s why I brought him here because I want to build a club on men like him.”
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While many of the players tease Nicholls about his close bond with Bennett and asking if he is his Dad, Gilbert is ‘enjoying’ getting to know the master coach for the first time, as well as the rest of the staff.
“One of the things I like is how direct and honest he was with me,” said Gilbert. “And I think that’s something really big for a young footy player. You can sometimes get told you’re this and that but it’s about the things that I’m not good at that I need to keep getting reminded of, so I can keep getting better. And that’s something that I really enjoy about Wayne.”
“He is really nice. It’s pretty new and fresh, but I’m really enjoying not just being under him, but also Woolfy (Kristian Woolf) and Fieny (Nathan Fien) as well as the performance staff.”
Many jokes have been made about no location being attached to the Dolphins. Nicholls isn’t too concerned about what others think of their name and is just looking forward to the support from their new fans – as well as poaching some from their neighbours the Brisbane Broncos.
“There are people who get paid more than me to make those decisions,” joked Nicolls.
“Everyone obviously knows where the Dolphins are based and where the club has come from in the Q-Cup. But even just from being here, going up the coast a couple of times and around the Redcliffe community, there’s a lot of fans of Sydney teams that have been living up here for 10-20-30 years and just because they went for another team they are anti-Broncos.
“Because they now have a local team they already said they are going to jump on board.”
There is still a long way to go before their Round 1 game against the Roosters, but the boys are looking forward to welcoming their new fans to the newly named Kayo Sports Stadium and proving the sceptics wrong.
“We’re going to turn up wanting to win,” said Nicholls.
“We wouldn’t all be up in here in this 35-degree heat if we didn’t think we could win some footy. I think as the leaders that’s something that will be trying to really instil early on is that we’re not here to make up the numbers, we want to do something in this competition.”