A bit of history of the Redcliffe Dolphins.
The name and players will all be revealed in due course. Here’s how The Dolphins really tick, why location matters and how they built their warchest.
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From a dump to the NRL: What you really need to know about The Dolphins
October 16, 2021 — 5.00am
Dolphin Oval, the spiritual and administrative home of the NRL’s newest team, was built on a dump. Back in the 1970s, when the local council made some reclaimed land available for be transformed into sports fields, the local rugby league club were quick off the mark to stake their claim.
It was a move that has paid handsome dividends 50 years later as Redcliffe were this week given the keys to the top tier of Australia’s premier competition, becoming the NRL’s 17th club and fourth in Queensland. It was the culmination of years of shrewd business and football moves that manoeuvred the Dolphins into the perfect position when a new licence finally hit the market.
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Redcliffe are a long-established brand in Brisbane rugby league circles but it will take some time for NRL fans in other parts of the nation to understand the geographic links and what makes up the DNA of the club.
Already, there has been hearty debate over the name. At the moment, they are simply “The Dolphins” but are likely to adopt a geographical qualifier. It won’t be North Brisbane, because Redcliffe isn’t in Brisbane, which leads us to our first point of order.
Where are The Dolphins and why does it matter?
Redcliffe sits on a peninsula north of Brisbane, where the Brisbane City Council limits ends and the Moreton Bay Regional Council limits begin. It has close with the sprawling Queensland capital, of course, but also north to the Sunshine Coast, a region that has long been wanting an NRL team closer to its rich playing catchment.
The Dolphins logo on the outside of the Redcliffe Leagues club.Credit:Getty
And for all of the talk about the importance of a team in the western triangle between Brisbane, Ipswich and the Gold Coast, the area north of Brisbane has exploded in growth. That’s a point that has been somewhat lost, says Dolphins chairman Bob Jones, and he believes the placement makes perfect sense.
“They were all talking the western corridor but the northern corridor is twice as big and growing faster,” Jones said. “It’s just amazing, every time you drive through there a whole new suburb seems to appear.”
The Dolphins will play the bulk of their games at Suncorp Stadium, some at Dolphin Oval and some at the Sunshine Coast, where they are destined to draw strong support given the representative tentacles that stretch as far north as Gympie – 150 kilometres away.
“All of the Redcliffe boys, their rep sides were the Sunshine Coast. If you go to the state championships, you play for the Sunshine Coast,” Jones said. “My kids still have heaps of mates from Nambour, Gympie or Noosa, all of that region.
“Those links are long-established and have been over the years. While we’re not part of the Sunshine Coast Council, we are part of the region in a football sense.”
Where did they get all their money from?
One of the great selling points of the Dolphins was their huge asset base, estimated to be worth around $100 million, along with a Leagues Club that generates more than $30 million per year. They have also had a little help along the way, with a $6.5 million northern grandstand at their oval funded by the local council and federal government.
So, where did it all come from?
“I don’t know about rich,” Jones said. “But my forebears had the foresight to want their own ground and want their own oval rather than sharing the showground, where we played from originally for many years.
The Dolphins play out of Moreton Bay Stadium, but in the NRL they will likely play a good portion of games at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.Credit:Getty
“We wanted our own entity. The base was the local dump at one stage. They reclaimed the land and built Dolphin Oval on there and a clubhouse.”
It didn’t stop there. The club make a savvy move about 15 years ago when it purchased a substantial plot of land adjacent to Dolphin Oval, building a shopping centre and office space, with room for more in the future.
“We bought 11 hectares, which encompasses our main field and the field at the back and there was a junior field next to our main field, we converted that into a shopping centre. Then we have another area behind that we can do something with down the track,” Jones said. “It’s all to benefit the Redcliffe Dolphins, so it was a smart move. We’re in control of our own destiny.”
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Another ace up the sleeve of the Dolphins is their Leagues Club, which boasts 30,000 members. The relationship between the two entities has ensured Redcliffe have wanted for nothing, with the charter of the Leagues Club specifically designed to pour everything into the football operations.
“Our first body was the Redcliffe District Rugby League Football Club. The leagues club was first born in 1971 and its charter was to foster and promote all things Redcliffe rugby league,” Jones explains.
“Its charter is there to support the football club and it’s always been that way. Our leagues club, while it is its own entity, it is governed by five directors from the football club. And we have two independent directors from the floor of the general membership. Our football club basically controls the leagues club.
“It is a real strength. It’s always been the way at Redcliffe: The president of the football club is chairman of the leagues club. It’s not mandatory but that’s how it’s always been done.
“In 51 seasons, we’ve had three presidents. Dick ‘Tosser’ Turner, Des Webb and now me. In all that time, our board has been very stable. That’s the DNA of our club. We’re rugby league people. It’s the way we set it up and we intend to leave it that way.”
Who are their fans?
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The beauty of bringing an established club into the NRL means they bring thousands of rusted ons with them. But the Dolphins are hoping to capture plenty more along the way, even if they are simply jumping on board because they aren’t the Broncos, who have a good number of anti-fans in Brisbane along with their army of supporters.
Some of those may adopt the Dolphins as their second team, although Jones hasn’t given up hope of winning the hearts of some of their great local rivals like Bayside bedfellows Wynnum-Manly. As the only Brisbane Rugby League club to be given a slot in the NRL, he wonders whether that may earn them some respect, at the very least.
“I have relatives that are Wunnym supporters and they are pleased we have the licence. There will be some of that from other clubs, people who aren’t fans of the Broncos.
“They may not love the Dolphins when we play each other but we like to think we can represent a lot of those clubs. We’re the only BRL club that has gone on to the NRL.”
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