It's not something Dolphins forward Kenny Bromwich wants to dwell on too much, but there is growing speculation that 2024 could be the last season he plays alongside his brother Jesse.
The respected Kiwi duo have played the past 11 years together at Melbourne and with the Dolphins, with Kenny debuting in the NRL in 2013 and Jesse in 2010 to launch a career that saw him become the 46th player to reach 300 games earlier this year.
The duo have also played the most games together as brothers by far, having featured in 220 matches. The next most is Steve and Peter Mortimer with 164, all for Canterbury.
For younger brother Kenny, if next season does happen to be Jesse’s last in the NRL, he thinks it would be fitting for the inaugural club captain to lead the side to their first finals appearance after the Dolphins narrowly missed out this year.
“I'm not too sure, maybe, let's see what happens,” Bromwich said when asked about his brother’s retirement plans.
“He’s getting on now; but he's still running around pretty well and training well, so we'll see what happens.
“I felt that most of my career I've been his tackle bag.
“I probably have thought about (Jesse retiring) now more recently, I don't really like to think about it to be fair, I just take everything as it comes.
“But we’ll see how we go this year and see what he wants to do.
“It would be definitely a driving factor for him to try and leave on the best way possible, so he'll be doing everything within his power to try and make that happen and I'll be right here with him trying to do the best we can as well.”
Missing the finals this year was almost uncharted territory for the Bromwich brothers, with Kenny having played post-season football every year with the Storm, while Jesse only missed out in his debut season.
However, with a year of experience as a team under their belt and some high-profile recruits on deck, Bromwich was confident the Dolphins could achieve another first come 2024.
“It was different watching (the finals), hoping to play there this year,” Bromwich said.
“I did miss it, obviously when you're watching everyone else play, you feel like you want to be out there, so will be keen to try and rectify that for this coming year.
“It does make you it make you hungrier, but we have confidence to get there.
Farnworth hits the training field on his first day as a Dolphin
“That's definitely where we're trying to get to and from the year we had last year, I think there's a lot of improvement in us and with the list we've got - and hopefully everyone's staying healthy - that's definitely on the radar.
“There's still a buzz around this place and I think the part where it does feel like it's been a bit settled is we've got the way we want to attack and the way we'd like to defend, so in terms of footy, the training sessions has been feeling like we sort of know what we're doing now and we can hone in on those aspects of our game and take it to another level.”
Statistics courtesy League Information Services
