Cyclone Alfred: Souths Sydney coach Wayne Bennett backs NRL for moving games as Dolphins players refuse to play

Relocating the South Sydney-Dolphins fixture outside the path of cyclone Alfred was the right thing to do, Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett says.

Bennett has backed the NRL’s decision to move the Friday fixture from Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium to CommBank Stadium in Parramatta instead of calling the match off entirely.

The NRL’s decision has been met with some resistance from the Dolphins camp, with Kodi Nikorima, Mark Nicholls and Kenny Bromwich opting against flying out with the team to Sydney on Wednesday evening.

The trio were concerned about the welfare of family members being left behind, given their homes are in the firing line of the cyclone.

Alfred is expected to hit between Maroochydore and Coolangatta in southeast Queensland on Friday afternoon, though communities from Coolangatta down to Ballina in NSW have already been impacted by wild weather.

About 20,000 properties in the Brisbane area face flooding, while evacuation centres have been established in northern NSW.

Nicholls, who has a young family, was seen sandbagging his home in Redcliffe on Wednesday.

Bree Nikorima, the partner of Dolphins playmaker Kodi, is six months pregnant and has two young children.

She labelled the NRL’s move to leave families behind during a cyclone for a game of football “disgusting” in a now-deleted story on Instagram.

Former Dolphins coach Bennett refused to comment on the decision of his ex-players, but remained bullish about the NRL’s relocation choice.

“That’s a Dolphin issue. It’s not one that we have,” Bennett said on Thursday.

“They’ve (the NRL) done the right thing.

“It’s important to everyone involved in the game - the fans, the TV stations, all the people that support the game.”

Rescheduling the Dolphins-Rabbitohs match would have required a complex overhaul of the current fixture, given the teams do not share a common bye weekend.

The round-17 clash between the clubs will now be a Dolphins home game following the move.

The AFL chose to call off their opening-round fixtures in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, ruling out relocating the matches initially scheduled for Thursday and Saturday night.

Brisbane Roar’s A-League Women clash with Melbourne City, scheduled for Sunday at Brisbane’s Perry Park, has also been postponed.

Meanwhile, the Brisbane Broncos are scheduled to return on Friday after Thursday night’s NRL clash with the Sydney Roosters at Allianz Stadium.

Arriving in Sydney on Tuesday with the team, Broncos chief executive Dave Donaghy has already flown back to oversee support for loved ones.