Dolphins

Can a brand-new NRL franchise carry the weight of 75 years of community rugby league heritage and translate it into elite-level competitiveness? The Dolphins — the newest franchise in the National Rugby League, entering as the 17th team in 2023 — are engaged in precisely this experiment, and the early evidence suggests the foundations are structurally sound. Based in the Redcliffe Peninsula area of the City of Moreton Bay in northern Brisbane, the club draws upon a lineage in Queensland rugby league that predates most of its competitors, lending an historical depth to what might otherwise be dismissed as merely an expansion project. Under coach Kristian Woolf, the Dolphins are steadily building their NRL identity through a roster that blends exciting young talent with seasoned veterans, adding a genuinely new dimension to Queensland’s rugby league landscape.

Club History

While the Dolphins’ NRL tenure began in 2023, the organisational heritage stretches back to 1947, when the Redcliffe Dolphins were established as a community rugby league club in the Queensland Cup. Over the ensuing decades, the Redcliffe Dolphins became one of the most successful and passionately supported clubs in Queensland’s state-level competition, accumulating numerous premierships and cultivating a supporter base across the northern Brisbane corridor that provided the institutional foundation upon which the NRL expansion was built.

The NRL licence, granted in October 2021 following a rigorous bid process that saw the Dolphins prevail over rival applications, was awarded on the strength of three decisive factors: deep community backing, a viable stadium plan, and a rugby league heritage that gave the franchise an authenticity most expansion teams lack. From a structural standpoint, these were precisely the ingredients that the competition needed to see in a 17th licence holder.

The inaugural NRL season in 2023 was coached by Wayne Bennett — the most successful coach in rugby league history — whose presence brought immediate credibility, institutional professionalism, and the capacity to attract marquee signings that ensured the Dolphins were competitive from the outset. The tactical significance of Bennett’s involvement cannot be overstated: his presence alone circumvented the years of struggle that have historically characterised expansion franchises in their formative seasons.

Following Bennett’s departure at the end of the 2024 season to return to the South Sydney Rabbitohs, former assistant coach Kristian Woolf was elevated to the head coaching role — a decision that prioritised continuity and internal knowledge over external appointments. Woolf’s previous experience coaching the Tonga national team and the St Helens club in England’s Super League, combined with his intimate understanding of the Dolphins’ roster and cultural framework, provided the stability necessary to navigate a coaching transition that might otherwise have destabilised a young franchise.

Recent Form

The Dolphins have shown the kind of steady, measurable improvement since their debut season that suggests genuine structural progress rather than merely circumstantial competitiveness. Under Woolf in 2025, the club continued to refine its playing style and squad depth, building methodically toward the goal of establishing themselves as a consistent finals contender. The analytical reality of expansion franchise development is that the early years are necessarily about embedding foundations — tactical systems, cultural standards, and developmental pathways — and by that measure, the Dolphins’ trajectory is encouragingly on schedule.

For 2026, strategic recruitment and the continued maturation of the club’s emerging talent have bolstered a squad whose depth is improving with each season. The retention of key players, combined with the emergence of young stars from the club’s pathways system, provides supporters with analytically grounded optimism about a future that is being constructed with patience and architectural precision.

Key Players

Isaiya Katoa (Halfback) — The young halfback around whom the franchise’s tactical future is being architected, Katoa captained the Dolphins in 2025 and represented Tonga at the Pacific Championships with a maturity and skill execution that belies his age. His kicking game — both tactical and in general play — his running threat from the halfback position, and his capacity to lead a young group with composure under pressure make him the heartbeat of the Dolphins’ attacking system and the player most likely to define the club’s competitive identity for the next decade.

Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow (Fullback) — A Queensland State of Origin representative whose electric speed and finishing ability produced 22 tries in 2025 to lead the club’s scoring charts. Tabuai-Fidow’s capacity to create tries from broken play — to identify and exploit the fractional defensive misalignments that most players cannot see, let alone reach — represents a genuine tactical point of difference for the Dolphins and makes him one of the most dangerous fullbacks in the NRL.

Tom Gilbert (Second Row) — An Origin-level forward whose return from a long injury rehabilitation positions him to make an immediate and significant tactical impact in 2026. Gilbert’s combination of physical toughness, mobility across the park, and ball-handling skill makes him a highly valued member of the forward pack whose presence adds a dimension of edge play that the Dolphins have needed.

Daniel Saifiti (Prop) — The marquee prop whose size, power, and Origin-level experience bring a proven quality to the Dolphins’ middle unit that expansion franchises typically take years to acquire. Saifiti’s return from injury adds an enormous physical and psychological dimension to the forward pack, providing the club with a performer whose competitive credentials have been tested and validated at the highest level.

Herbie Farnworth (Centre) — A skilful and powerful centre whose combination of evasive footwork and direct, forceful running creates a persistent threat in the Dolphins’ backline. Farnworth’s experience and composure in the high-traffic centre position provide a structural stability to the club’s attacking patterns that is particularly valuable for a young, developing squad.

Home Ground

The Dolphins’ dual-venue strategy — splitting home matches between Kayo Stadium in Redcliffe and Suncorp Stadium in Milton, Brisbane — represents a tactically astute approach to the challenge of balancing community authenticity with commercial ambition. Kayo Stadium, formerly Dolphin Stadium, is the traditional home of the Redcliffe Dolphins and holds approximately 10,000 spectators in an intimate setting where fans packed tightly around the playing surface generate a noise level that gives the Dolphins a disproportionate home-ground advantage relative to the venue’s modest capacity.

Suncorp Stadium, with its 52,500-seat capacity and status as one of the premier sporting venues in Australia, serves as the club’s marquee-fixture home and provides the infrastructure necessary for the blockbuster occasions that drive commercial revenue and supporter growth. The strategic logic of this dual approach is sound: Kayo Stadium preserves the connection to the Moreton Bay community that gave the franchise its soul, while Suncorp provides the stage for the moments that will define its future.

The Redcliffe precinct around Kayo Stadium continues to develop, with facility improvements and capacity expansions designed to grow in parallel with the club’s NRL ambitions — a physical manifestation of the franchise’s long-term vision.

Honours

The Dolphins are yet to win an NRL premiership, having entered the competition in 2023 as an expansion franchise whose NRL-level history is necessarily brief. The broader Redcliffe Dolphins organisation, however, boasts an extensive honour roll in Queensland rugby league, including numerous Queensland Cup premierships dating back to the mid-twentieth century — a heritage that provides both institutional knowledge and community expectation. The NRL franchise’s strategic objective is to build upon this rich foundation and deliver a premiership to the Moreton Bay region, a goal whose achievement would represent one of the most remarkable expansion-franchise narratives in the history of Australian professional sport.

AK — Senior tactical analyst, australiafootball.com