The Dolphins have had a few hiccups in the recruiting market, but they may have just signed their first captain.
The club announced on Friday that they have signed Jesse Bromwich, with the Melbourne Storm stalwart to join Felise Kaufusi, Jamayne Isaako and Ray Stone in Wayne Bennett’s inaugural squad for 2023.
But while Kaufusi, Isaako and Stone could be dolphins in the long run, Bromwich is different. He will turn 34 just months after the expansion side play their first game in March next year.
Bromwich are the biggest name the club have landed so far, and they have the bones of a strong team, but there is still a long way to go. He’s yet to land a slam dunk, a true superstar, the kind of signature that makes everyone sit up and take notice.
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The Dolphins failed to find their Scott Prince, who changed things for the Titans when they signed him for their first season in 2007. Prince was one of the best players in the league at the time and he pointed out to everyone the new guys. .
The Dolphins will sign someone like that. But in Bromwich they might have found their Glenn Lazarus, who was nearing the end of his career when he joined Melbourne in 1998 as the team’s first skipper.
Like Bromwich, Lazarus had won several premierships and was a representative stalwart. Like Bromwich, Lazarus had once been rugby league’s top stalwart but had started to slow down. Like Bromwich, Lazarus turned 33 in the same year he played his first game for the expansion club and, like Bromwich, Lazarus signed a two-year contract.
Lazarus ended his time with the Storm by lifting the club’s first premiership trophy in 1999. Asking the Dolphins to start so soon sets them up for failure, but Bromwich’s move is definitely intriguing.
Bromwich has been one of the best props in the competition over the past decade, and his style of play – which is less about size and strength and more about footwork, agility and body control – has become most fashionable during his long career.
But time waits for no one. That wasn’t the case for Lazarus, the best prop of the 1990s, and it wasn’t the case for Bromwich, one of the best of the 2010s. Considering Bromwich is 32 and has almost 300 games to his credit, it was to be expected. He averaged 100 yards per game in 2021, his lowest mark since 2012.
Despite this, Bromwich were still a significant part of Melbourne’s middle rotation, with their overtakes and increased offload compensating for their slightly reduced yardage – their 21 offloads were their highest tally since 2016.
And while Bromwich may no longer be one of the competition’s best strikers, as they were in their prime, they remain a key figure in Melbourne’s winning machine. It’s worth noting that the former Kiwi Test captain has been selected alongside Dale Finucane to take over leadership from Cameron Smith – perhaps the greatest rugby league skipper of modern times.
Bromwich and Smith are the only Storm players to appear in each of the club’s major finals since the salary cap scandal in 2010. While Melbourne big three Smith, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk have captured much of the spotlight , Bromwich have been almost as big a figure in the club’s success – even the best in the world can’t move the way they want without a few good strikers.
By signing Bromwich, the Dolphins will not be looking for the man who was the world’s best prop for periods of the 2010s. Rather, they will be looking for the same thing so many clubs have tried to find when signing Storm veterans: they want a bit of the magic dust that made Melbourne a byword for success even before Craig Bellamy took over in 2003.
The Storm are the most successful expansion club in the history of the sport, and it started with Lazarus leading them for their first game nearly a quarter of a century ago.
It’s a dangerous game trying to buy what Melbourne has built. Many teams have landed a Storm stalwart over the years only to find that a Victorian veteran isn’t making a system.
What is certain is that Bromwich will lead by example from day one with their professionalism and work ethic, as no one survives or thrives under Bellamy until Bromwich has those qualities.
Does that make him a candidate to be the Dolphins’ first captain? Certainly, but it is not a fait accompli.
Bromwich would do a good job as Dolphins skipper, on and off the pitch, that is without a doubt.
But the Dolphins’ first captain will be at the center of the club’s promotional push in the NRL, and while Bromwich have the gravity of being that figurehead, chances are he won’t be a Dolphin for more. a season or two.
It’s an enigma for the Dolphins’ brass. In Bromwich they have a proven leader, but one that Father Time will claim sooner or later. Having him act as a deputy to a young leader might be the best option.
But, of course, the Dolphins have to find this young leader first. In the Storm’s first two seasons, Lazarus’ leadership was ably bolstered by Tawera Nikau and Stephen Kearney. Bromwich will need similar support.
If we look again at the Lazarus example, the game could be to give Bromwich a one-liner who can take over once the older man retires, like Robbie Kearns did for Lazarus.
It is certain that Bromwich will be there on day one for the Dolphins but it remains to be seen whether he leads the team or follows another skipper.
