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'I’ve never heard a room so silent': Dolphins' documentary maker lifts curtain on Kristian Woolf
Sam Kosack • March 6th, 2025 7:29 pm
The Dolphins may have had to move their first game due to a cyclone, but it is no metaphor for the attitude and atmosphere around the club, says Rise of the Dolphins documentary maker Nick Piper.
Piper, who created the initial Dawn of the Dolphins documentary, has followed the team from their introduction to the top grade, through to now, as the club approaches the beginning of their third season in the NRL.
The club enters a new era under head coach Kristian Woolf, taking over from Wayne Bennett as the supercoach returns to the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
While how the Dolphins will fare under their new coach is still a mystery, very few have a better idea than Piper, who after documenting Woolf for a pre-season, assured Dolphins’ fans that he will step into the role with immediate success.
“I heard Kristian Woolf talk to the board about a month and a half ago… and I’ve never heard a room so silent for 25 minutes,” Piper revealed to SEN 1170 Mornings.
“He had everything covered, not only in terms of the style they were going to play but the people they recruited to bring them in.
“I turned to Terry Reader, the CEO, at the end and I said, ‘this club is in a really fantastic place right now, maybe even a stronger place than it was two or three years ago’.
“Without looking at a crystal ball, I’d be very surprised if this team doesn’t make the finals this year, which has really been their aim for the last three years.”
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Along with new captain Tom Gilbert taking over from the retired Jesse Bromwich, Woolf’s turn as Dolphins' head coach will be his first foray into an NRL head coaching role, having previously coached the Tongan national team and St Helens when they completed a premiership three peat between 2020 and 2022.
Piper said he saw a lot of similarities between Woolf and Bennett in how they treat their players when he discussed how much access he had to film the group.
“It’s never an open book, it’s a negotiation, it’s a conversation,” Piper said.
“Kristian is similar to Wayne in that he believes in those old-school protocols and respecting the space that the players need to get ready.
“At the end of the day, upstairs is looking after membership subscriptions, downstairs is looking after wins and losses… so you have to respect that anything that distracts them from doing that isn’t productive.
“Nothing is off limits, but we’ve decided in the second series to concentrate more on players because the mechanics of football are rather repetitive.”
Rise of the Dolphins is available to watch on 9Now and will air after the Dolphins clash with Wayne Bennett’s Rabbitohs on Friday.
Listen to a minimum of four games every week on SEN this season! Sync the commentary with your TV using SEN Sync on the SEN App or listen live in stadium using SEN Stadium.
