Dolphins one win from NRL grand final as Herbie Farnworth drives expansion club's surge
The Dolphins are one win from an NRL grand final after booking a place in the preliminary final on Friday, with English centre Herbie Farnworth a central figure in their run to the penultimate stage of the competition.
The expansion club, formed four seasons ago, has shifted from being seen as entertaining outsiders to genuine contenders, wearing their red jerseys and popular try celebration while building a growing fan base. Terry Reader, the club chief executive, was one of 4,000 people who watched the team train on Monday and said: “Where we’ve come in the four years, we had a plan, we had a strategy, and it’s coming together, and now we’re 80 minutes away from a grand final.” The Dolphins staged their first home final at Suncorp Stadium after moving from a modest base in Redcliffe.
Three weeks ago Farnworth produced a signature moment against the Roosters when he chased a kick from Isaiya Katoa, leapt above Roosters captain James Tedesco and finished a try that swung the match. By half-time in that game the Dolphins had scored four tries, all coming down Farnworth’s left side, which yielded the match-winning lead.
Farnworth’s rise has drawn attention back to his Lancashire roots; his parents, Richard and Joanne, said they will be unable to attend a grand final even if the Dolphins reach it because they have booked a holiday. “Unfortunately this year we’re actually in the Maldives,” she says. “We booked it in January this year, we never even really gave it a thought that they’d do so well.” Joanne added: “It’ll be about eleven o’clock in the morning here, so we’ll watch it. I can’t actually watch the game because I get too nervous. I’m usually making sandwiches or something but listening to it in the background. I prefer to watch it when it’s finished.” She also recalled travelling with a 17-year-old Farnworth to Australia for two months to help him settle when he first signed for the Broncos.
The Dolphins’ recruitment and coaching structure underpinned their rapid progress: Reader appointed Wayne Bennett as the inaugural coach with Kristian Woolf brought in as assistant and an orderly transition enacted last season. The club initially signed established forwards including Felise Kaufusi and brothers Jesse and Kenny Bromwich, and backed youngster Isaiya Katoa at halfback, a player the club regard as the likely successor to Nathan Cleary’s throne as the game’s best halfback. Their backline has been led by inaugural fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and augmented in recent years by Farnworth and Selwyn Cobbo.
Statistically the club sits close to an early landmark, with the Dolphins one win short of 50 victories after just 96 NRL matches. The article notes Melbourne Storm won the premiership in their second year of existence, and places the Dolphins’ near-instant success in the modern era in that comparative frame. The club achieved this without the kind of tax concessions cited for Port Moresby or any special salary cap relief, a performance the piece says sets a high bar for expansion teams such as the Perth Bears and PNG Chiefs.
The Dolphins’ trajectory has had notable highs and lows: their first match as a club was an upset of the Roosters in round one of 2023, they suffered a 66-0 loss to the Sharks in July, and a recent victory in New Zealand over the Warriors secured their place in the preliminary final. After a run that included five wins against the NRL’s lower-middle teams, the victory over Sydney’s established club returned the Dolphins to a top-tier contest and has prompted many to tip them as the team best placed to challenge the Panthers for the premiership.
The immediate task remains clear: the Dolphins must beat the same Roosters side they upset three weeks ago to reach their first grand final, with the winner of that preliminary final taking a place in the season decider.