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\n Max Plath ruptured his ACL and injured his MCL in Round 14 against the Dragons in 2025.
\n \u00a9Scott Davis \/ NRL Images
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The prospect of the Dolphins fielding a fully fit side to start the 2026 season has a number of their key forwards fired up to try and keep their place in Kristian Woolf\u2019s team of 17.<\/p>\n
Connelly Lemuelu this week signed a one-year extension and declared his main goal next year was to claim a starting spot, while Max Plath \u2013 who claimed the Arthur Beetson Medal as the club\u2019s best player in 2024 \u2013 is on the comeback trail after undergoing ACL surgery six months ago.<\/p>\n
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\n Max Plath ruptured his ACL and injured his MCL in Round 14 against the Dragons in 2025.
\n \u00a9Scott Davis \/ NRL Images
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With the likes of captain Tom Gilbert, fellow State of Origin representatives Thomas Flegler and Daniel Saifiti and Pacific Championship players Jeremy Marshall-King and Francis Molo in line to return for Round 1, as well as the arrival of England international Morgan Knowles; the forward stocks that took a heavy hit in 2025 are set to be full to bursting.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely (it will be hard to return to the team); I’m very much a realist in that sort of sense,\u201d Plath said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve got some really good forwards and no-one has rights to any jersey whatsoever, so it’s going to be a big motivation for me to try and get back into that team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m a realist and Woolfy will name the best 17, so if I can just put my hand up and try and improve my game, hopefully I can get back in.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Flegler making a play for Round 1<\/p>\n
The emergence this past season of the versatile Kurt Donoghoe \u2013 who like Plath can play as a half, lock, backrower and hooker \u2013 as a strong middle has also made Plath\u2019s aim of fitting into the NRL side as he targets his Round 3 return even more challenging.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve always thought from since I’ve met Kurt that he’s a sensational player and whatever position he could play, he could absolutely brain it,\u201d Plath said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve said this a couple of times to some of the boys, but I’d much rather be the worst player in a winning team than being the best player in a losing team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWinning’s everything for me and if that’s Kurt’s position, that’s Kurt’s position.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can figure out another way to help the team win, so, it’s more so about having a really good team together and winning footy games.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n ![\"Connelly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/lemueluc-try-celebration-250410_cd_0667.jpg\"\/)
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\n Connelly Lemuelu on his way to scoring a try.
\n \u00a9Chloe Davis \/ NRL Images
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Lemuelu, who scored nine tries in 20 games last year, has provided plenty of impact on the edge for the team, but was eyeing a spot in the run-on side and a chance to extend his time with club beyond 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI came off the bench last year and I’m pushing for that starting spot this year,\u201d Lemuelu said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve made it a goal of mine to be an elite backrower and hopefully I can use this year to do that and become a starter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen hopefully we’ll go from there and get to extend my time a bit longer.<\/p>\n
\u201c(My game has) developed a lot (since coming to the Dolphins). I was obviously a fringe first grader up at the Cowboys before I moved down and since coming here, I feel like I’ve established myself as an NRL player.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m approaching 100 games this year, so fingers crossed I get to knock that milestone off, but we’ve had good people with Wayne (Bennett) and Woolfy’s coming in now, so just learning a lot and hoping to be better every year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI obviously have got to be fitter, work on my defence; I feel like my attack sort of comes naturally, so just get my fitness right and get my defensive side of my game right and that’ll put me in good stead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve got a good squad, our top 30’s very strong.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the boys out who’ve had long-term injuries coming back, the likes of Flegler, Gilbert; it definitely makes it a bit harder.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that just pushes everyone to be better and to be at their best, so competition’s always a good thing for these sides and pushing towards playing September footy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The prospect of the Dolphins fielding a fully fit side to start the 2026 season has a number…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-354508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354508","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=354508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}