{"id":211614,"date":"2025-10-14T02:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T02:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/211614\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T02:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T02:01:08","slug":"have-the-dolphins-signed-the-wrong-english-playmaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/211614\/","title":{"rendered":"Have the Dolphins signed the wrong English playmaker?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran half George Williams is heading for Redcliffe in 2027 to link with Kristian Woolf and the Dolphins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But based on the recent performances of rising Hull KR star Mikey Lewis, there\u2019s a fair argument the Dolphins may have signed the wrong Englishman.<\/p>\n

NRL clubs are no doubt a little gun-shy after the Lewis Dodd debacle at South Sydney in 2025 and Williams is certainly more of a known quantity having spent one-and-a-half seasons with the Raiders<\/a> before departing mid-year in 2021.<\/p>\n

However he\u2019ll also be 31 by the time he actually pulls on a Dolphins jersey and, despite being selected in the England squad for the upcoming Ashes series, few in Super League circles are singing his selection praises, apart perhaps from his former club coach at Wigan, Shaun Wane, who is now England boss.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0\u2018Career\u2019 ban for Waerea-Hargreaves following Super League grand final incidents<\/a><\/p>\n

Lewis on the other hand is still just 24 and it seems highly likely the feisty Yorkshireman will land in the NRL at some point in the next season or two\u2014hello, Perth Bears\u2014or potentially even\u00a0 alongside his current Hull KR coach Willie Peters when the Australian makes the inevitable move back home<\/a> to coach in the NRL.<\/p>\n

As noted by legendary English winger Martin \u2018Chariots\u2019 Offiah<\/a>, Mikey Lewis has more than a hint of Andy Gregory about him\u2014a man who caused the Aussies plenty of headaches back in the 1980s and 90s.<\/p>\n

Regardless, the Williams-Dolphins deal is done so it will be interesting to see how much first grade the Englishman actually plays, or if he ends up spending more of his time in Q Cup like the now-departed Sean O\u2019Sullivan, ready to step in as halves cover for Isaiya Katoa as and when required.<\/p>\n

Given Williams doesn\u2019t even arrive until 2027\u2014Warrington and the Dolphins were unable to agree on a transfer fee<\/a> for an early release\u2014there\u2019s still more than a year before we find out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran half George Williams is heading for Redcliffe in 2027 to link with Kristian Woolf and the Dolphins.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-211614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}