The Dolphins surprised many in 2023 by not only avoiding the wooden spoon but being competitive throughout most of their inaugural season. Can supercoach Wayne Bennett inspire a top eight finish in his final season as head coach or will they suffer from second season syndrome? Their strengthened squad suggests the former is possible.
Season Preview
The Dolphins head into their new season with a quiet confidence that they can not only improve their 13th-placed finish in their first season in 2023, but there’s even talk of a possible top eight finish. Some may say this is fanciful, but these are probably the same people who predicted a wooden spoon for the Dolphins in 2023. Based on their squad improvement and another season together, there’s a lot of upward momentum, but it will be very tough to break into the top eight, and there’s a lot of teams from the bottom half of the ladder in 2023 who one would expect to bounce back – like Parramatta, North Queensland, and South Sydney.
2024 will be Wayne Bennett’s final season in charge of the Dolphins before current assistant Kristian Woolf take over in 2025, and you can be sure he’d love nothing more than delivering another surprising result to further boost his NRL coaching guru status before he becomes a rugby league gun-for-hire. Talking of final seasons, it will also be club captain Jess Bromwich’s last NRL season too.
The Dolphins faded in 2023 as injuries and suspensions took a toll on the NRL’s thinnest squad, a group of players that were written off as wooden spooners by a lot of people. But 2024 has seen them strengthen their weakest positions, and there is genuine and justified excitement at their centre pairing in 2023, with new arrivals Herbie Farnworth and Jake Averillo: adding that extra quality to a squad who few could deny were playing for their coach, and giving everything, could prove the difference this season.
A kind early draw gives the Dolphins every chance to cement a place in the top eight, playing top eight sides from 2023 just twice in the opening 11 rounds; one of those games being the Battle of Brisbane against the Broncos in Round 5, and they host Newcastle in Round 8. And although State of Origin will claim a few of their stars, their spine and new centre signings in all likelihood will not play in the interstate series, so their tougher June/July schedule may not be as bad.
There’s a lot of positives for the fledgling NRL club going into their second season, and a real feeling they are on the way up in 2024.
Key Signings
Embed from Getty ImagesIt’s a triple dead heat for best signing for the Dolphins for the 2024 season, with two key weaknesses from the 2023 squad strengthened.
The Dolphins managed to steal one of the centres of the season from 2023 in Herbie Farnworth from their cross-town rivals, and also managed to convince one the Bulldogs’ most promising players Jake Averillo to move north. This bolsters a position in which the Dolphins had some trouble with in their first season. The flow-on effect is that with a robust yet attacking centre pairing of Farnworth and Averillo, they will hopefully not be tempted to move Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow away from fullback in 2024, where he was at his very best for the Dolphins in 2024.
The third horse in the triple dead heat signing coincidentally comes the Broncos too – Tom Flegler. With the Bromwich brothers another year older, and captain Jesse set to retire at the end of the season, they needed some new blood and impact in the engine room, and Flegler provides both: 2023 was arguably his finest season, calming down some of his excesses while still being a handful up the middle.
Key Player
Embed from Getty ImagesHamiso Tabuai-Fidow is one of the headline players whose attacking brilliance will always be important, but for key players heading into 2024 there’s two who could prove central to the Dolphins’ success this season, both of whom had interrupted 2023 seasons through injury.
Tom Gilbert was one of the Dolphins’ best in early 2023 as they enjoyed a top eight position, and his form was good enough for a State of Origin Game 1 berth. Sadly, that’s where his season ended. To have the former Cowboy for a full season will give the Dolphins some added muscle in the pack and power in attack, and a real X Factor among the forwards, which was lacking at times in 2023 despite the best efforts of Jarrod Wallace from the bench.
Sean O’Sullivan’s injury-interrupted season wasn’t as bad as Gilbert’s, but his injury suffered during the first Broncos clash in 2023 did stop the momentum. O’Sullivan is highly rated but has never got a full time chance at an NRL club before now – he has the perfect opportunity to take charge of an NRL team at the Dolphins and take his career to the next level. With an exciting line up of outside backs for 2024, including last season’s leading point scorer Jamayne Isaako, there’s a lot of point-scoring potential in the Dolphins this season.
Player to Watch
Embed from Getty ImagesIsaiya Katoa is a player to watch for the Dolphins in 2024. Having poached the promising Penrith product, Katoa was preferred to the more experienced Anthony Milford initially and overall performed admirably in 2023. With a first NRL season under his belt, it appears he will get first chance at the five eighth starting role; he has the perfect platform to shine, showing a few more glimpses of that skill on display at the Rugby League World Cup in 2022.
Notable other players to watch are Valynce Te Whare, who has shed an impressive amount of weight after being told to in pre-season. A leaner, more experienced Te Whare won’t get first crack at the centre position in 2024, but as the season goes on he will get a chance and I reckon he will take it.
And fan favourite Ray Stone, who will hopefully grab one of the bench spots for the season; his steely glare and dedication to playing hard at the detriment of his own wellbeing will keep him winning fans throughout the new season.
Number Crunching
Premiers: nil
Minor Premierships: nil
2023 win/loss record: 9 wins, 15 losses (37.50%)
NRL Finals Appearances: nil
Biggest win: 24, vs New Zealand Warriors (34-10, 2/9/23, Suncorp Stadium)
Biggest loss: 40, vs Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles (18-58, 9/6/23, 4 Pines Park)
