Rugby league great Laurie Daley has delivered a brutal assessment on the Dolphins’ 2023 season hopes, hinting that a wooden spoon finish could be on the cards.
Wayne Bennett’s franchise faced multiple tough recruiting blows leading into their inaugural season, getting rejected by the likes of Cameron Munster, Kalyn Ponga and Brandon Smith.
While Daley admits the competition’s 17th side has a lot of depth in their forward pack, he believes there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done in the back line.
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Despite a strong contingent of Bennett’s squad playing representative football in the past, the Raiders legend revealed it may not be enough to find themselves in the top half come finals time.
“For me I don’t think they’ll be scoring a lot of points in their game,” Daley told The Big Sports Breakfast.
“I don’t see a lot of points in this team, I see them trying hard, I see a lot of experience in the forwards, you look at Jesse Bromwich upfront, Kaufusi and Kenny Bromwich in the back-row.
“I mean they’re coming out of the Melbourne Storm system so they’ll be professionally involved in their job, Tommy Gilbert who played Origin last year for Queensland as is apart of that North Queensland Cowboys team that went deep into the finals.
“They’ve got some depth in the forwards, you’ve got Mark Nicholls who has been to a grand final before with Souths, Jarrod Wallaces who has played Origin.
“So they’ve got experienced forwards but they’re tradesmen, I don’t see a lot of creativity in the forward pack.”
Meanwhile, Daley pointed to the halves pairing of Anthony Milford and Sean O’Sullivan as a point of concern.
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The NSW legend believes Milford won’t be able to rediscover his best football under Bennett, while O’Sullivan will be tasked with driving the Dolphins around the park.
“When you look out wide there’s not a lot of guys that really you would say have that line breaking ability, I think they’ve got some speed there with Edrick Lee, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow… then who is going to create that space to get them in,” Daley said.
“Who is going to create the opportunity to put them in that space, I can’t see Milford rediscovering his best football.
“I think he’ll have a solid year under Wayne (Bennett) because I think he enjoys playing under him and Wayne can get the best out of these players but I think his best is past him.
“Sean O’Sullivan plays with a lot of control but you don’t see him as a line breaking half, he’s more of a control number seven.
“I just don’t see where the points are going to come from, to get them into positions to be able to put on their plays or play off the cuff or whatever style of footy they may play under Wayne Bennett but I just don’t see the creativity there.”
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While the Dolphins have a solid squad, they still have a huge amount of their salary cap to use — but for this season he believes they will only manage “five wins”.
“They still have two million dollars in their salary cap so that’s two one million dollar players,” Daley said.
“There’s a couple of marquee players there that they’re missing out on, I think if they can win a couple of games they’ll have an enormous year the Dolphins.”
Hesitant to label the Redcliffe-based side as wooden spoon winners for 2023, Daley gave the Dolphins a glimmer of hope, recognising Wayne Bennett’s ability to turn teams around.
“They’d have to be favourites for the wooden spoon, I haven’t ranked them 1-17 yet but I think they’ll be close,” Daley said.
“The only thing I will say about them is Wayne Bennett, now Wayne is getting on but his last coaching performance he took Souths to (a Grand Final).”
