The official unveiling of the NRL’s 17th team has left everyone asking the same question and making the exact same joke.
Everyone had the same joke when the Dolphins, the NRL’s newest team, was officially unveiled on Wednesday.
What actually are the Dolphins?
With the team yet to announce what geographic district it will represent, there has been plenty of head-scratching since the new team was confirmed on Wednesday.
The team has ties to the Redcliffe community and the Redcliffe Dolphins in the Intrust Super Cup competition — but the team won’t include the suburb name in its title.
The new franchise is a completely separate entity from the Redcliffe Dolphins, based in the northern Brisbane suburb approximately 40km from the CBD.
For now, the franchise is simply ‘The Dolphins’.
There was previously an expectation that the team would by titled ‘Brisbane Dolphins’ — but all bets are off with the club confirming it will consult with supporters before deciding on a final name.
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo also raised eyebrows when he said the Dolphins will not be attached to an area by name in his Wednesday press conference.
As it stands, the team name will remain the Dolphins, and they will play home games at Suncorp Stadium and other venues in the Brisbane area.
The Dolphins will enter the NRL in 2023 — becoming the first expansion side to join the competition since the Gold Coast Titans in 2007.
The team will effectively have 12 months to put together a 30-player senior squad and coaching staff before pre-season gets underway in November 2022.
Abdo revealed in his press conference the untapped market potential of Brisbane was a key factor in handing the league’s 17th licence to the Dolphins as a league survey unearthed a major finding.
With the major clusters of professional sporting teams in both Melbourne and Sydney, Abdo felt a new team in Brisbane would be the perfect location to expand the NRL.
“When you look at Brisbane as a market compared to Sydney and Melbourne as the big cities where we play, we have 17 professional teams in Sydney and 17 professional teams in Melbourne,” Abdo said.
“We have six professional teams in Brisbane.
“When you look at it from a GPP perspective, we see that Brisbane is a key market for us to take advantage of in terms of growth.
“Then you marry that up against the fact that our own research tells us we’ve got a number of fans in Queensland that don’t support an NRL team but are interested or casual fans of the game.
“This is a great opportunity for us to take advantage of that.
“So from that perspective, we’re very excited about what a 17th team in Brisbane, the Greater Brisbane area and Queensland can bring for us growth-wise.”
The Dolphins join the Brisbane Broncos as the second NRL team in Brisbane and can also count the Brisbane Lions, Brisbane Roar, Brisbane Heat, Brisbane Bullets and the Queensland Reds in the sporting fraternity of the Sunshine State capital.
Australian Rugby League Chairman Peter V’landys earlier revealed one condition in the team being granted the franchise is for $2 million annually to be put towards growing the participation and engagement of women in south east Queensland.
V’landys last week informed the NRL’s 16 existing clubs the expansion would be going ahead following a $50 million surplus for the league.
According to the News Corp report, veteran coach Wayne Bennett is the most likely candidate to become the Dolphins’ foundation coach.
Bennett’s attention will reportedly immediately turn to drawing up a hit list of players the club hopes to snare from rival clubs.
The veteran coach had already been linked to making a raid on Rabbitohs playmaker Cody Walker.
The Daily Telegraph’s Dean Ritchie on Wednesday morning speculated on Sky Sports Radio the state of the NRL player market means the Dolphins could target superstars, including Kalyn Ponga, Cameron Munster, Reed Mahoney and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui.
— with Alexander Conrad, NCA NewsWire
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