How the Dolphins built a premiership roster in four season, Isaiya Katoa, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, why pathways program can be as big as Penrith, lessons for other expansion clubs

After a couple of heartbreaking near misses, the Dolphins will finally be heading on a maiden NRL finals voyage.

The competition’s 17th team have risen steadily up the ladder since their inception in 2023, before improving sharply this season – so much so they’ve become genuine premiership threats.

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Despite concerns it might be a bit of a slog early doors for the expansion club, the Dolphins’ first four seasons have to be considered a success.

In just their fourth season, they’re on the verge of a top four finish and have a powerhouse roster built to win a premiership.

There are a multitude of reasons the Dolphins find themselves in that position.

Firstly, it’s been a masterclass in how to build an NRL franchise.

Savvy investments on outside junior talent have worked out beautifully while the club’s aggressive recruitment strategy has paid dividends.

In addition, the club can lay claim to one of the strongest development and pathway systems in the entire comp with a prodigy pipeline tipped to ensure the Dolphins are well built for many, many years of success.

Foxsports.com.au breaks down the Dolphins’ formative years and why they’re in such a position of strength.

ROSTER BUILDING STRATEGY

The Dolphins’ inaugural roster heading into the 2023 were far from world beaters and even though they finished 13th with just seven wins, the debut season marked a successful initiation, given they were tipped to win the spoon.

Then coach Wayne Bennett and recruitment manager Peter O’Sullivan believed setting a strong culture was what was important early doors.

Patience was emphasised. This was never going to be a team that won a comp in the first two years.

While the PNG Chiefs have been armed with tax-free contracts to offer, the Dolphins’ tact was much different.

Signing the likes of Jesse Bromwich, Kenny Bromwich, Felise Kaufusi and Mark Nicholls drove tough standards day in and day out even if they didn’t drive big headlines.

Adding guys like Tom Gilbert, Max Plath, Tom Flegler and Kurt Donoghoe lifted this team further. The sort of blokes that are no-frills and can set a tone in both attack and defence.

“You go back to when they were set up under Wayne Bennett and they went for players who weren’t necessarily at the peak of their rugby league powers, but they were fantastic culture men and by that I mean mature, respectful, hard training – the sort of people you just drop into any team, any organisation, and they lift the standards,” Fox League’s Matt Russell said.

A strong and experienced pack is important, but the Dolphins also needed some sizzle to score the points.

Picking up an unwanted Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow from the Cowboys was a masterstroke.

North Queensland essentially picked Scott Drinkwater over the ‘Hammer’ and Bennett pounced in the back end of 2022, with Tabuai-Fidow turning into one of the NRL’s best fullbacks and a top 20 player in the comp.

Another astute recruitment decision was signing Herbie Farnworth from 2024.

Farnworth was just below the top echelon of the game’s best centres when he left the Broncos but in his three seasons in Dolphins colours, he has established himself at the top of that list with Stephen Crichton and Latrell Mitchell.

“They’ve got a really good balance of some rock stars, some athletic guys, some tough dudes, some character guys,” premiership winning halfback Cooper Cronk told foxsports.com.au.

“For every Herbie Farnworth, Hammer and Isaiya Katoa there is Gilbert, Ray Stone and Flegler. I think the Dolphins deserves a lot of credit.”

Ex-NRL star Michael Ennis agrees, believing the Dolphins’ roster build should be a blueprint for future expansion clubs.

“I think the way that they’ve built their roster, their recruitment was fantastic. They got senior leaders out of you know that Melbourne Storm culture that had so much success, the Bromwich Boys and Felise Kaufusi,” Ennis said.

“Then they went and got real good quality character into their footy team with guys like Flegler and Gilbert.

“Then to be able to pick up the real X factor marquee guys like Farnworth and Tabuai-Fidow and now Cobbo more recently, yeah it’s been really well built. Really well built.”

But the key to the Dolphins’ early recruiting is the gutsy call they made around the most crucial position.

THE ‘GENIUS’ GAMBLE THAT PAID OFF

When the Dolphins signed Isaiya Katoa in 2022, he was a relative unknown to even diehard NRL fans.

Well regarded within the Panthers’ system, Katoa’s path to Panthers No.7 was blocked by one N. Cleary.

For a consistent first grade opportunity, it was clear that he had to go elsewhere, although Katoa was more than happy to bide his time and stay in Penrith.

“I understood I’d be sitting there for a while and I had no problem with that,” he told foxsports.com.au last year.

“Before the Dolphins contract came about, I had no problem with that and having to wait a couple of years to get a shot in first grade

Therefore, it’d be the Dolphins who approached the teen sensation in 2022.

At the time, Katoa was in the final year at prominent rugby union school Barker College and was playing both codes.

Bennett and the Dolphins’ brass was impressed by the well-spoken, mature 18-year-old. They didn’t hesitate making their move and 12 months later, Katoa would make his NRL debut in the club’s inaugural game – a shock upset win over the Roosters.

While the signs were evident early that Katoa may be one out of the box, not many would’ve envisaged he’d become a top five NRL halfback by 22.

Cronk, who knows a thing or two about wearing the No. 7 jersey, is enamoured by Katoa’s game and development.

“He’s already a star of the competition. He was bamboozling teams last year, and coaches are now giving him a different defensive look, they’re mixing it up,” Cronk said.

“Izzy probably was managing his way through that the first third of the year, but I think before the injury he had come out the other side where he was getting back to controlling the Dolphins attack and carving up defences when he can.

“I think he’s a star. He’s already got all the ingredients that can make a halfback dominate the competition for a long period of time.”

Consider Ennis another massive fan of the Dolphins pivot.

Ennis pointed to Katoa’s early days in the Penrith system behind Nathan Cleary as crucial to the young half-back’s development.

”The luxury and development of having someone like a Nathan Cleary at your club to be able to learn from, but he’s mixed in his own style as well.

“He’s got parts of Nathan’s game that no doubt he’s drawn from, but he’s also got this you know new and unique style and it’s shown how he’s gone about things in the early part of his career.

“His ball playing’s is mesmerising. It really is given the way he can engage the line and play straight and slow down and draw players out of the line.

”It was a risk but it was a calculated risk signing Isaiya Katoa because of the detail that they’d spent watching Katoa come through those lower grades at Penrith and through those school rugby union days.

“It was genius recruitment.”

DEVELOPMENT AND PATHWAYS

Unlike other expansion clubs that have joined the competition in years past, the Dolphins had a unique advantage.

Given the Redcliffe Dolphins have been operating as a stand-alone state-league club for over 50 years, there was already a pathways system in place.

In addition to the senior level Queensland Cup, Redcliffe were also fielding teams in the under 16s Cyril Connell Cup and the under 18s Mal Meninga Cup.

In fact, even before the Dolphins were awarded the 17th NRL licence, the club had over 800 registered juniors and teams all the way down to under 6s.

However, because there was no NRL team to progress to, the cross-town Broncos were generally the beneficiary when a Redcliffe junior had the ability to play at the top level.

Former Origin and Test star Brent Tate was a Dolphins junior from the age of nine before debuting for the Broncos as a 21 year old.

Legendary prop Petero Civoniceva was also developed in the Dolphins’ junior system.

The strength of the pathways system already in place was a huge reason why the Dolphins were selected as an expansion club.

The promotion to the big time then allowed the Dolphins to expand on their already extensive pathways program with the millions of dollars in added resources.

As former teammate of Tate and Civoniceva, Broncos legend Gorden Tallis explains, it could be a worrying sign for the rest of the NRL.

He even made a huge call when comparing the Dolphins to the Penrith Panthers’ pathways behemoth.

“They are the only side in world sport that go from under sixes through to the national competition,” Tallis said on Triple M.

“The amount of kids that are funnelling through their system, the talent that’s going to come through that organisation, he’s (pathways specialist Kurt Richards) fishing with dynamite.

“That’s going to be a powerhouse. They are going to be bigger (than Penrith’s nursery).

“That is the destination club because the amount of talent they’re going to have going through there is unbelievable.”

One name the club are excited about is 18-year-old Brian Pouniu, who is being earmarked for a massive career.

Pouniu made his debut against the Eels last weekend, playing all 80 minutes and running for 180 metres in a powerhouse performance.

As coach Kristian Woolf explained post-match, Pouniu is the first Dolphins player to progress through every stage of the club’s academy.

“He’s our first academy player to come through and play at every level of the academy,” Woolf said.

“He’s a Redcliffe junior. He’s grown up in the area. He’s played through the club. He’s what the club’s about.

“He’s played every level at the club as well, so it’s outstanding.”