'Some day we wanted to use it': Why Dolphins fought to protect name

The awarding of the NRL’s 17th licence to the Dolphins has justified a legal stoush with the Gold Coast to protect the Redcliffe-based club’s name, according to chairman Bob Jones.

Before the Titans joined the NRL in 2007, the Gold Coast bid team held a competition to decide on their nickname and the Dolphins was chosen because of its appeal to women and children.

The team’s name and jersey was unveiled on Channel Nine during an episode of The Footy Show in 2004.

However, the Redcliffe Dolphins had long held ambitions to play in the NRL and instigated court action to prevent the Gold Coast from using their name.

“I was on the board then and they rang us one night and told us that they were going to call themselves the Gold Coast Dolphins,” Jones said.

“We told them that we didn’t think that was a good idea and took out an injunction the next day. We did a heap of work and research, and it never got to court.”

Under the terms of an agreement between the two clubs, merchandise with Gold Coast Dolphins branding was destroyed.

Another naming competition after the Gold Coast were granted a licence to become the NRL’s 16th team led to the club being called the Titans over the Stingers or Pirates.

The Titans launched a re-designed logo on Thursday that modernises the club's emblem and reflects how they have evolved after 15 years in the NRL.

The threat of losing the nickname first adopted by the club in 1947 prompted Redcliffe to develop and strengthen the Dolphins’ logo and trademark icons.

The club engaged a branding and marketing company, whose research revealed the Dolphins brand was more widely known than the Queensland Bulls and Queensland Reds, with only the Broncos and Brisbane Lions ahead of them.

“They [the Gold Coast] knew that they couldn’t win the case, and the reason we didn’t want them to use the Dolphins name was because some day we wanted to use it ourselves,” Jones said.

The Dolphins, who joined the Brisbane Rugby League competition in 1960 before the establishment of the Queensland Cup in 1996, are set to unveil a new logo and colours for their NRL team.

The club has decided to drop Redcliffe from their name and will be known simply as the Dolphins in a bid to appeal to fans beyond their geographical location on the Moreton Bay peninsula.

The Titans' re-design follows the launch of a new Wests Tigers logo last week and CEO Steve Mitchell said the Gold Coast wanted a more contemporary look that aligned to the club's ambitions for the future.

“The logo is a representation of the Titan out the front with a look of intent and fierceness, and is a reflection of the strategic plan and our direction, but it is also speaks to this group of athletes that are coming through," Mitchell said.

“We are 15 years old, we have got the brand that we have got and that will be with us forever but it has now been put to the side while we have this new brand that will lead this group of young athletes who will cut a new swathe for this organisation."

With a long history of success and the backing of the wealthy Dolphins Leagues Club, as well as other business interests at Redcliffe, Mitchell backed the NRL’s newest club to succeed.

“I think a couple of things that they have got right is that they have a lot of skin in the game, in that they are a traditional side with a big catchment area for rugby league, and they have got some people who have helped steer their application process that are very strong commercially,” Mitchell said.

“Often that can be a shortfall, because of the commercial nous of the business, but I think that the people who are steering that particular franchise have got the merit and have got the business nous to actually say they can make it sustainable and make it work.”