“I want good players to come here but it’s more than me being here and that’s the concept I want everyone to buy into. It’s a wonderful club, a great area, it’s not about one person.”

He dismissed any lingering anger with the Broncos and said he didn’t even consider the Dolphins to be major rivals of the Brisbane powerhouse, which he helped start in 1988 but left after a bitter fallout with club management before heading to the Rabbitohs.

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“I don’t believe that, I don’t believe they have been set up to be rivals to the Broncos. I’ll make a point to you all today: My time at the Broncos is over. I’m here at the Dolphins, I want them to be the best club, I won’t be looking over my shoulder at any club in the NRL.”

Bennett also said he wouldn’t be scouring South Sydney for players after steering them to a grand final. He said his history had shown he rarely launched major poaching raids on clubs he had recently left and that he had no insight into reports there was a clause in his Souths contract that prevented him from taking players with him.

“I love you media guys because I didn’t even know I had that clause. I don’t care about the clause, it doesn’t interest me at all,” Bennett said.

“Go and have a look at all the players I’ve taken from clubs I’ve left. South Sydney, for example, Jaydn Su’A and Pat Mago were cast out by the Broncos. Darius Boyd followed me for a decade because the Broncos didn’t want him. I have no history of taking major players from any club.”

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