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As Wayne Bennett embarks on building a playing squad that will ensure the Dolphins hit the ground running in their maiden NRL campaign, the veteran coach says culture will be the driving factor in his recruitment.

Bennett, 71, was confirmed as the Dolphins' foundation NRL coach on Thursday, the club signing him to a four-year deal as they prepare for their debut in the competition in 2023.

The only coach to take four different clubs to a grand final - including Brisbane five years after their entry to the NRL in 1988 - Bennett's appointment comes before the November 1 deadline when the Dolphins can begin negotiations with players.

The expansion club have already been linked with NRL stars Kalyn Ponga, Cameron Munster and Harry Grant.

Parramatta hooker Reed Mahoney, Gold Coast forward Tino Fa'asuamaleui and Melbourne prop Christian Welch are others on the Dolphins' radar.

With a $9.5 million salary cap to fill, Bennett says it's more than just pure talent that will drive his selections.

"Culture, every time," he said.

"The talent will come and we'll grow the talent, we'll find the talent but it's who we are and what we are and what we stand for is the important things within clubs.

"Obviously I want the good players to come here and want to feel comfortable here but there's just more than me being here that will bring them here and that's the concept that I'll be buying in to and I want everyone else to buy in to.

"This is a wonderful club, great area and it's not about one person."

The Dolphins will be Bennett's latest stop in a first-grade coaching career that began working alongside Don Furner at Canberra in 1987 before a 20-year stint at the Broncos, which brought the club six premierships.

He took St George Illawarra to a premiership in 2010, spent three years at Newcastle and then returned to Brisbane, taking them to the 2015 grand final.

Sacked by the Broncos in 2018, Bennett then joined South Sydney where his final match at the helm was this year's grand final defeat to Penrith.

Despite the breakdown of his relationship with the Broncos after his acrimonious exit from Red Hill, Bennett said his decision to take on the Dolphins job was not about establishing a rivalry with his former employers.

"I'll make a point to you all here today, my time with the Broncos is over," he said.

"I'm here at Redcliffe - the Dolphins - and I want them to be the best club.

"I'm not going to be looking over my shoulder at any other club in the NRL.

"My total focus is on what we can do here how we can enhance what they've already built here."

Bennett is yet to decide on his coaching staff but did confirm his assistant is likely to be his long-term successor at the Dolphins, similar to the role played by Jason Demetriou at the Rabbitohs.

"That's obviously going to be an important decision," Bennett said.

"I'm just kind of sitting back at the moment, we've got 12 months grace there, but our plan is to get someone to take my place when my time's up as we've just done at South Sydney.

"It works and it's in the best interest of everybody that we move in that direction.

"That's been part of the negotiations and that's the way we're going."

© AAP 2021

Supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles plan to order their combined workforces - about 300,000 people - to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Woolworths want all of its 170,000 workers to get their second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by early next year to reduce the risk of infection.

The directive will apply to employees at about 1200 stores as well as distribution and online fulfilment centres and support offices.

"With each store welcoming an average 20,000 customers a week, a single team member can come into contact with quite literally thousands of people in the course of a normal working week," CEO Brad Banducci said on Thursday.

"After careful review of the best medical advice, we've made the decision to require all of our team members in Australia to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19."

Workers must be fully vaccinated in the ACT, NSW, NT, Victoria and WA by January 31, and by March 31 in South Australia, Tasmania and Queensland.

But Woolworths also recognises some workers might have legitimate medical or religious reasons to be exempt.

It's planning a series of workplace meetings before making a final decision on its double vaccination plan in November.

About a third of its Australian workforce is already subject to state-issued health orders requiring full or part vaccination in order to work.

In the coming months, Coles will require workers to be vaccinated as a condition of working at stores, distribution centres and other sites in NSW, the ACT and Victoria, unless they have a valid exemption.

Government health orders also require Coles staff in the NT and Coles supermarket workers in WA to be vaccinated in order to work.

Coles says it will work with team members in those jurisdictions so that they can comply with the regulations.

"We have worked hand-in-hand with health authorities and adopted their recommended safety measures, allowing us to keep our 120,000-plus team members and millions of customers safe," Coles Group CEO Steven Cain said in a statement.

As part of the new requirements, Coles workers in NSW and the ACT must have had at least one vaccination by November 5 and their second dose by December 17.

In Victoria, NT and WA, team members are required to be vaccinated in line with the dates set out in public health orders.

In each state where employees are required to vaccinate as a condition of work, either as a result of government health orders or as part of Coles' policies, Coles intends to maintain this as an ongoing requirement.

Both chains will not require customers to be fully vaccinated to buy food and other goods - which is in line with current state-based health orders.

© AAP 2021

Wayne Bennett is confident he's starting from a much stronger position as the Dolphins head coach than in his previous time as an NRL foundation coach.

The NRL expansion outfit confirmed the worst-kept secret in rugby league when they announced Bennett as their inaugural head coach.

The first coach to take four different teams to a grand final, Bennett has signed a four-year deal with the Dolphins before their maiden campaign in 2023.

Bennett was Brisbane's foundation coach when the Broncos joined the NRL in 1988.

He led Brisbane to premiership glory in 1992, eventually spearheading them to six premierships in his 20-year stint before leaving Red Hill in 2008.

The 71-year-old said the parallels between the two clubs couldn't be more stark heading into their first NRL campaigns, however.

"This is an established club," Bennett said of the Dolphins.

"And I recognise that it's my job to come in here and work within this framework.

"When we started in 1988 at the Broncos ... we had no club, we had no ground, we had virtually nothing.

"But it's a wonderful, wonderful facility here. Extremely well run, very successful. So it's a different context.

"The job's still the same but a different context."

Bennett is yet to finalise his coaching team and his first role at the club will be identifying key recruitment targets to build a competitive squad.

The Dolphins can begin negotiations with players from November 1, with Queensland State of Origin stars Tino Fa'asuamaleui, Cameron Munster and Christian Welch among those who will be on the radar.

Bennett refused to discuss specific players but said securing top talent would be the priority.

"You've got a nine and a half million dollar salary cap," he said.

"You know you've got to get some marquee players, so that'll be our priority to get those and build the other players around them.

"One of the differences here in this situation - in '88 there was a lot of State of Origin players that were playing in Brisbane club football and number from this club, that came to the Broncos to start that.

"We don't have that luxury this time.

"They're all playing in the NRL now at clubs so we've got to work through that and come up with the best roster we possibly can."

© AAP 2021