Katoa reveals the biggest reason he wants to be Dolphin for life

Isaiya Katoa isn't entertaining thoughts of life anywhere else.

The Dolphins' young superstar prepares to launch another season, as the 22-year-old halfback has revealed his aspirations at the club.

Katoa wants to be a Dolphin for life, to build a legacy there, being inspired by Reece Walsh's title-winning heroics with the Broncos and inspired by the greats like Andrew and Matty Johns, as well as Phil Gould, that have huge praise for the young halfback.

For Katoa, he wants to be consistent, continue to get better and is hungry for finals footy.

“I definitely believe we can play finals this year,” Katoa told NewsCorp.

“There's a number of team and personal goals I've got and I'm hungry to play finals.

“I had games where I played well, games where I was fairly decent, and then I had games where, to my standard, I was fairly poor.

“Consistency is a big thing for me this year. I want to stay at around eight to nine out of ten for most of the year."

The biggest reason for his little appeal in testing rugby union and even going to Papua New Guinea when the NRL team comes in can be simply broken down to one word: loyalty.

“There's new clubs coming in but what the Dolphins have done for me, I will never forget,” he said.

“They took a chance on me when I was a teenager coming through at Penrith and I don't think the things I can do on a footy field will ever repay the faith the Dolphins have shown in me.

“I'm so grateful. They've looked after me and looked after my family, it's just a great club heading in the right direction, so I definitely won't be looking at going anywhere else.”

“I love playing NRL. There's so many smaller goals and bigger goals that I wanted to achieve in the game and give the Dolphins some rewards for the investment they made in me.

“I guess I'm happy to stay on that path, where I'm solely focused on rugby league for the Dolphins.”

The Tongan test playmaker will open his 2026 campaign on Sunday at Suncorp Stadium against South Sydney, with the spotlight on him, the calm centrepiece of a Dolphins side many believe could explode into premiership contention this year.