Dolphins keep building for big future with $2m Katoa re-signing

The Dolphins have moved to keep hold of another young gun by re-signing boom five-eighth Isaiya Katoa on a $2 million deal that will keep him in Redcliffe for at least another four seasons.

It’s a particularly wise move for the Redcliffe expansion team that is shoring up its succession plan once Wayne Bennett leaves the club. Alongside Katoa, they already have Jake Averillo, Herbie Farnworth, Tom Flegler, Tom Gilbert, Jamayne Isaako, Junior Tupou, and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow locked up through to around 2026.

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Katoa, who is still just 20, is expected to earn around $500,000 a season through to 2028 with his new deal. While it’s not an especially huge pay packet for a playmaker in the NRL, it is worth remembering he will still not have cracked 24 by the time this Dolphins deal wraps up.

It also gives Redcliffe powerbrokers more cash to build the rest of the growing squad.

One question that still needs answering is who will be partnering Katoa beyond this campaign. His fellow halves have mostly been Kodi Nikorima and Anthony Milford, but both are off-contract at the end of the season. The Sporting Base has not heard any extension talks for either just yet.

That question may send the Dolphins into the player market heading into 2025 or 2026, but with Katoa locked up for the next few years once half of the puzzle is solved.

This Redcliffe extension also slams the door on any potential rugby raid in the near future. The Sporting Base had heard some rumours around Katoa signing with Rugby Australia at the end of his current rugby league deal—he previously played as an Australian Schoolboy—but they have since been all but scuppered with this re-signing.

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Never say never though, with Katoa even admitting midway through last season that he would “never close out the opportunity to play rugby union because [he] grew up playing rugby union.”