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Michael Westlake

Bennett Says Expansion Fin-Tastic For Maroons

Dolphins coach-in-waiting Wayne Bennett believes the NRL’s decision to expand the competition to include a second Brisbane team to rival the Broncos will double as a boost for Queensland’s State of Origin program.


Bennett found an ally in new Queensland Origin coach Billy Slater, who says a fourth NRL club in the Sunshine State will help bolster the playing stocks of the Maroons in their annual interstate battle with the Blues.


The ARL Commission have embarked on one of the most significant projects in rugby league’s 113-year history, giving rise to a second Brisbane team to compete in a 17-team NRL competition from 2023.


It is the code’s first expansionary move since the creation of the Titans in 2007 and has been backed by Bennett, the NRL master mentor who will help set up the Dolphins, more than three decades after being installed as the foundation coach of the Broncos.


Bennett played a key role in the birth of the Queensland Emerging Origin program in 2001 when there were fears the Maroons could no longer compete with NSW after the Blues won the 2000 series 3-0, including a then-record 56-16 thrashing in Game Three.


Now Bennett is keen to use the Dolphins as a vehicle to develop more State of Origin players for Queensland.


Of the 480 full-time players registered by the NRL for the 2021 season, just 101 were eligible for Queensland.


That’s a 21 per cent representation, and Bennett is adamant a second Brisbane team in 2023 will help deliver more Queenslanders to the big league.


“Another Brisbane team will be great for the Queensland Origin team,” Bennett said.


“It means there will be more opportunities for Queensland kids and we need more representation for the Maroons.


“It will give State of Origin more certainty as time goes on.


“We have so few players in the NRL who are eligible for Queensland, so we need the Maroons to stay competitive in the Origin arena.”


Slater says seven-time premiership-winning coach Bennett is not only the ideal candidate to take charge of a second Brisbane team, but the right mentor to help cultivate a new wave of Queensland Origin rookies.


“Having a second Brisbane team is great for the game,” Slater said. “Brisbane is a huge market, so this is going to be a great result for Queensland rugby league.

“The Dolphins coming into the NRL can help us develop our Queensland talent.

“Brisbane certainly has the population to handle another team, and Redcliffe have been a powerful organisation for a long time.


“My father actually played for Redcliffe, so ‘Tosser’ Turner (FOGS Founding Chairman, and Redcliffe and Queensland Origin patriarch who passed away in 2008) will be happy upstairs having a cold beer. “Wayne Bennett will be sensational for the new team.


“Every time people question him, he hits back with his results. His record speaks for itself and if the Dolphins can have Wayne in their organisation to kickstart their journey in the NRL, it can’t be a bad thing.”


If anyone understands what it takes to build an NRL from the ground up, it is Bennett.


He was Brisbane’s inaugural coach in 1988, putting in the structures and instilling the values that propelled the Broncos to six premierships during a golden era between 1992-2006.


Now Bennett is tasked with creating another footballing system in Brisbane, and the NRL’s greatest coach has firm ideas on the values that will underpin the Dolphins’ rise to the big league.


“I have some very clear views on what I want for the Dolphins,” Bennett said.

“One of the things that will be important is our word is our bond.


“A handshake will be the starting point for us.


“I spent my first 21 years at the Broncos and I never signed a contract. Nobody would believe it, but we built the Broncos on our actions and what we said we would do.


“The players, staff, everyone bought into that philosophy.


“If the Dolphins want to be the team and club we all want them to be, that honesty must be the foundation for us.


“I will make sure the Dolphins live by their word.”


While the Broncos will have a 35-year headstart on the Dolphins by the time Brisbane’s NRL rivalry is born in 2023, Bennett is adamant the 17th team will not be whipping boys.


The Dolphins will enter the NRL as arguably the richest club in the code.


With gross assets of $70 million across the Redcliffe business empire and more than $20m in cash reserves, the Dolphins will be as rich as the Broncos, Roosters, Melbourne, Souths and newly-minted NRL premiers, Penrith.

Indeed, Bennett sees parallels between the Dolphins’ northern catchment and the monster footballing nursery that has turned the Panthers into a premiership juggernaut.


“The Dolphins are so similar to Penrith,” Bennett said.


“They have a great catchment, so we have to maximise the talent in the area and capitalise on the same type of nursery that the Panthers have.


“I am really clear on how I want the Dolphins to look and the way we will play our football.”


Bennett says the Dolphins must heed the lessons of Brisbane’s last expansion rivals, the South Queensland Crushers, who lasted just three seasons before being killed off in 1997 as part of peace talks following the Super League war.


“The Crushers’ mistake was that they tried to be too much like the Broncos,” Bennett said.


“The Broncos won’t be affected. They’ve had a 30-year headstart in this market.

“There will never be another club like the Broncos, simple as that, so the marketplace in Brisbane can be great if a second team comes in with the attitude that they will create their own identity.


“A second Brisbane team cannot look over their shoulders at the Broncos.


“The dumbest thing the Dolphins can do is worry about the Broncos.


“I don’t want the Dolphins to be the Broncos. I want them to be the Dolphins.


“We have to blaze our own trail. We will have a new band of supporters so it’s a great opportunity for the Dolphins.”

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