Growing up in the Redcliffe Peninsula, Brent Tate was only ever a 14-minute bike ride away from Dolphin Oval. Though Tate would eventually leave the surrounds of Redcliffe, the Dolphins would never leave him.
What make the Dolphins so special to you?
The Dolphins are a football club first and foremost.
They are run by people who understand that if you aren’t putting a team on the field who people want to watch, then you’re in trouble.
They are a smart, business-minded team, but their business decisions come second to the impact any decisions will have on the football side of the organisation.
Our core business is football and the club understands that — Bob Jones understands that.
The Dolphins have given me so much.
I was like every kid at the time, riding my bike to Dolphin Oval playing on Saturday mornings and staying there until 6pm.
The people on the PA systems would always be telling me to get off the field because the Queensland Cup was back on, and they were waiting to kick off.
Do you have a favourite ever Dolphin?
Trevor Benson is my favourite for some reason.
I don’t think I ever saw him play live, but I’ve seen videos of him playing and I’ve read about him plenty.
Who did you love watching at the Dolphins?
Iggy Graham, Tom O’Reilly and Troy Lindsay.
Can you remember your debut for the Dolphins?
I was still in school and playing Under 19s for Redcliffe when I got the call up to play against the Capras in the Queensland Cup.
I got my nose smashed all over my face and played the game out with watery eyes, but I scored a try and was happy to have played.
The 2000 and 2001 Grand Final — what went right and what went wrong?
In 2000 we [Toowoomba Clydesdales] beat the Dolphins 46-12 in the major semi-final, then we lost the Grand Final against the Dolphins by eight points a fortnight later.
I’m not sure if we were just over-confident or not, we had such a good side with players like Justin Hodges, Chris Walker, Corey Parker and Carl Webb — but we just couldn’t finish it.
12 months later we won on the bell in the Grand Final against Redcliffe at Dolphin Oval, but I didn’t enjoy beating Redcliffe.
Who used to give you the most problems on the field?
Adam Mogg and Adam Starr used to love giving to me when I was playing for the Clydesdales, if you can believe it.
Mogg and I had lots of battles, I remember the hostility in the 2000 Grand Final, when I was playing for Toowoomba.
Moggy was playing fullback for the Dolphins and I snapped at him, this is as good as it gets for your career Moggy, enjoy it!
We’d eventually be Maroons teammates a few years later.
What was your job away from football?
I was working at the Broncos Leagues Club when I left school, still playing for the Clydesdales.
I used to watch the first-grade squad train through the leagues club’s windows, and it used to make me cranky.
I’d spend my breaks writing out a Broncos starting side, seeing where I could fit into the team.
You eventually got to play for the Broncos, was that a dream you always wanted?
It was against Melbourne in Melbourne; I was coming off the bench to defend outside Kevin Walters.
We still joke that the hardest thing you could do in a debut is to defend outside of Kevvie.
I had a really good offer from the bulldogs by the end of 2001.
I was on about $40,000 at the Broncos, and the Dogs had offered me $160,000 but Wayne convinced me that the deal with the Dogs wasn’t the best thing for me and my career.
You were picked for Origin after only 14 NRL games, what can you remember from that experience?
Gene Miles rang me and I had to get myself to the Sofitel Hotel.
I was worried that it was a joke that Darren Lockyer and Gorden Tallis had pulled on me, that’s how young I was.
I thought I’d turn up and they’d all jump out laughing.
Where are your jumpers now?
I’m a meticulous keeper of jumpers, I think I’ve swapped two in my life — but I have them all, from my Dolphins jumper to my Kangaroos jumper.
Some day in the future, a kid from Redcliffe will play from Under 8s to the NRL, having only played for the Redcliffe Dolphins — how will that make you feel?
Honestly, I’ll be envious and completely jealous that someone got to do that.
It will be a great day for the Dolphins, and I’ll be proud and happy for him, but ultimately very jealous of that Dolphin.
