The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. And like that, he’s gone.
So said Verbal Kint in The Usual Suspects. If you haven’t seen it, no spoilers but it’s kind of important to the overall plot.
Perhaps the greatest trick Wayne Bennett will ever pull in his coaching career will be convincing the rugby league world the Dolphins’ finals chances never existed.
And like that, he’s gone and started the season 3-0.
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The Dolphins have stunned the NRL, tipsters, bookmakers, fans and anyone who knows the difference between rugby and league by winning their first three games.
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Written off as a roster of journeymen, fading veterans and young prospects, they head into Friday night’s Suncorp Stadium sell-out against the Broncos riding high at the top of the table alongside their Brisbane rivals. Yes, Kevin Walters, they are your rivals.
Teams that win their first three matches have an 82.2% likelihood of making the playoffs in the NRL era.
Of the 45 teams that have kicked off their season 3-0 in the past 25 years, only eight have failed to make the finals, including the 2010 Storm side which was stripped of their points mid-season after salary cap rorting was uncovered.
The 13 most recent teams who have started with a hat-trick of wins have finished in the top eight at season’s end.
| 2022 | Panthers | Premiers |
| 2021 | Panthers | Premiers |
| 2021 | Eels | Semi-finalists |
| 2020 | Eels | Semi-finalists |
| 2020 | Raiders | Preliminary finalists |
| 2019 | Storm | Preliminary finalists |
| 2019 | Rabbitohs | Preliminary finalists |
| 2018 | Dragons | Semi-finalists |
| 2018 | Warriors | Qualifying finalists |
| 2017 | Storm | Premiers |
| 2017 | Roosters | Preliminary finalists |
| 2016 | Storm | Runners-up |
| 2015 | Rabbitohs | Qualifying finalists |
| 2015 | Knights | Wooden spooners |
| 2014 | Dragons | 11th |
| 2014 | Storm | Qualifying finalists |
| 2013 | Storm | Semi-finalists |
| 2013 | Rabbitohs | Preliminary finalists |
| 2012 | Bulldogs | Runners-up |
| 2012 | Storm | Premiers |
| 2011 | Bulldogs | 9th |
| 2010 | Dragons | Premiers |
| 2010 | Titans | Preliminary finalists |
| 2010 | Storm | Wooden spooners* |
| 2009 | Broncos | Preliminary finalists |
| 2008 | Broncos | Semi-finalists |
| 2007 | Sea Eagles | Runners-up |
| 2007 | Cowboys | Preliminary finalists |
| 2007 | Rabbitohs | Qualifying finalists |
| 2007 | Storm | Premiers* |
| 2006 | Knights | Semi-finalists |
| 2006 | Cowboys | 9th |
| 2006 | Panthers | 12th |
| 2005 | Sea Eagles | Qualifying finalists |
| 2005 | Raiders | 14th |
| 2004 | Roosters | Runners-up |
| 2003 | Raiders | Semi-finalists |
| 2003 | Broncos | Qualifying finalists |
| 2003 | Storm | Semi-finalists |
| 2002 | Knights | Semi-finalists |
| 2002 | Sharks | Preliminary finalists |
| 2000 | Raiders | Semi-finalists |
| 1999 | Sharks | Preliminary finalists |
| 1998 | Knights | Preliminary finalists |
| 1998 | Cowboys | 16th |
* – as part of the Storm’s salary cap sanctions, in 2010 they were stripped of their competition points and their 2007 premiership.
Expansion sides historically struggle in year one apart from the anomaly that was the Storm when they made the playoffs in 1998 after filling their roster with a couple of defunct Super League sides.
A few years earlier the Auckland Warriors went 13-9 but had two crucial competition points deducted for breaching the replacement rule in a game and the Western Reds finished 11-11 in their inaugural campaign but both just missed the top eight in the 20-team competition.
The Dolphins’ modern-day task has been made much harder by the four-week ban handed down to Felise Kaufusi for a late hit on Jackson Hastings.
In isolation, that incident did not deserve a month on the sidelines. It was a late hit on a playmaker who had passed the ball but it wasn’t necessarily dangerous compared to some of the acts of thuggery that have been given the feather-touch punishment of a fine or one-game ban in the past year. Nelson Asofa-Solomona alone provided three or four examples of worse incidents last season that didn’t result in a suspension under the streamlined but weakened match review process.
However, Kaufusi is a repeat offender and the system has always been set up to punish those players harder than cleanskins even before the points system was instituted. After Canterbury halfback Steve Mortimer had a string of incidents in the 1980s, judiciary chairman Jim Comans famously warned him that “rugby league will just be a memory for you” if he didn’t change his ways.
Felise Kaufusi and Jeremy Marshall-King run onto the field for the Dolphins. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
With Jeremy Marshall-King serving the second week of his two-match ban, the Dolphins’ depth is starting to be stretched but Kodi Nikorima stepped in at hooker last week and held his own as the newcomers outlasted the nebulous Knights in Newcastle.
Former Roosters and Dragons forward Poasa Faamausili comes into the game-day 17 for Kaufusi with Ray Stone likely to be elevated into the starting side.
Teenage five-eighth Isaiya Katoa is in doubt with an elbow injury with former Broncos playmaker Anthony Milford set to get his first start of the year if the rising star is ruled out.
Kaufusi has been integral to the Dolphins’ early success and how the new side handles the grind of 24 matches over 27 weeks will dictate whether they can overcome the pre-season predictions and now live up to their 82% likelihood of making the finals.
They passed their first test with flying colours when they upset the Roosters in Round 1 and did all that was required without being outstanding to account for the Raiders and Knights.
This Friday night will possibly and probably be their biggest match of their inaugural year – tackling the Broncos for the first time in a top-of-the-table clash between two unbeaten teams at a sold-out Suncorp Stadium.
For Bennett, whenever he’s come up against Brisbane in his various stints at St George Illawarra, Newcastle and South Sydney it has always been a hyped-up encounter even if he has done minimal fanning of the flames himself.
After being sacked by the club when his second stint came to an acrimonious end in late 2018, Bennett has constantly denied there being any extra significance about Broncos fixtures.
But the camera doesn’t lie and the footage of him dancing in the sheds with his delighted Rabbitohs players after beating Brisbane the following year gave the television viewers a glimpse of the truth behind the steely Bennett facade.
This time around, Bennett has conceded at his captain’s run media conference at Suncorp Stadium on Thursday that the match means “a great deal”.
When asked if this scenario was something he could have imagined in his wildest dreams, he replied: “No. I don’t dream much.”
“I am really pleased for the game. I think it is a magnificent promotion by the NRL to put the Dolphins in.
“To be here in week four and have the whole state and probably the whole country engage in this game, from that point of view it is outstanding.
“It has captured the public’s imagination. It will certainly be the biggest crowd that will be here for a club game that I can remember.
“All the great cross-city rivals in the world are the best of what makes sport great theatre … and I am proud to be a part of it.
“I’ve had some great moments and some terrible moments (at the venue). That goes with the job. It has been a pretty special place and will always be in my heart.”
He refused to answer questions about the Broncos, or Kaufusi’s judiciary case for the matter – “I’m here as the Dolphins coach. If you wanna ask me something about the Dolphins, I’ll give you an answer,” he told one befuddled local journo.
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