After winning a premiership together at the St George Illawarra Dragons in 2010, Wayne Bennett and former dummy-half Nathan Fien are back together at the NRL's newest club.

Fien was announced as Bennett's assistant in mid-October, recruited after experiencing regular success in the local Illawarra Rugby League competition, winning four premierships as a coach with both Thirroul and Collegians.

Despite that success, Fien hasn't been exposed to the pressures of NRL coaching, and he said Bennett's call came โ€œout of the blueโ€.

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โ€œI was pleasantly surprised, it's an opportunity to further my coaching career โ€“ and what an opportunity here at the Dolphins,โ€ Fien told AAP.

โ€œA lot of coaches get to (NRL) level their own way, but for me, staying at the local level with Thirroul and Collegians gave me an opportunity to run a squad, manage the day-to-day running of a club and be a mentor to the young guys.

โ€œWayne has seen something he thought I might be able to bring here and we have that good working relationship from years past.โ€

Bennett has publicly spoken on the need for Queensland-bred coaches to lead the Dolphins into the NRL, and Fien fits the bill being born in Mt Isa โ€“ the same town as fellow assistant and future Dolphins head coach Kristian Woolf.

Fien says he has based his own coaching methods on what he learned from Bennett โ€“ but it's the attitude and skill he developed during his 276 career NRL games that will prove more beneficial to the group.

โ€œAs a player I probably wasn't the most skilful guy, but when we got down and dirty and crossed that white line it was game on,โ€ Fien said.

โ€œI wanted to try and be that player every player wanted to play with. If I can get a bit of that into the Dolphins club and into our DNA then that will keep us in good stead, and competitive in a lot of matches.โ€