Dolphins CEO Terry Reader has backed coach Wayne Bennett’s claims that the club needs to be patient as they look to build a playing squad for 2023.
Bennett recently told The Sun Herald that the club was in no rush to sign as many players as they could, and Reader says that’s exactly the way the club’s board is aligned.
While they’ve only signed two key players – Melbourne’s Felise Kaufusi and Parramatta’s Ray Stone – for their first season, Reader says the club is “comfortable” with where they sit as the player market has only been open for just over a month.
“Wayne, the first thing he thought about when we were putting the squad together, the first thing he said was, ‘We need to have some patience’,” Reader said on Sportsday NSW.
“Contrary to what the media sort of might’ve been saying is that we might not have signed enough players already.
“But, we’re actually really comfortable with where we’re at, I mean the player market if you like has only been open for 37 days.
“It’s not just about signing the marquee players … the players 15 to 30 are just as important as one to 15.
“There’s a lot of work going on in the background at all levels.”
Reader says the club isn’t interested in purely bringing players in that’ll compete in their first campaign, instead keeping an eye on the future.
While the club has been linked with bringing in star fullback Kalyn Ponga on an astronomical deal, Reader says they’ll continue to do their ground work in the “background” as they don’t want any potential negotiations coming out in the public.
“We’re building something that’s more than just ’23, we are looking towards the future,” Reader said.
“One thing we’ve been really conscious of is that if we’re negotiating player contracts we don’t do that in the public domain.
“We’re keeping that to ourselves, Ray Stone and Felise (Kaufusi) are good examples of that, there’s a lot of things we’re doing in the background.
“We don’t play it out in the public domain, a lot of negotiations that go on are quite sensitive.
“It’s a moving beast, we’ve got a lot of irons in the fire.”
The Dolphins will play their first NRL game in Round 1, 2023.