October 2, 2024 • 40 mins
On this episode, Murray is joined by New Zealand rugby league legend, Stacey Jones. Deaks and Stacey talk about the highs and lows of the early days at the Warriors, what went wrong with the clubs NRL season this year and look ahead to Stacey's first crack at coaching the Kiwis international side later this month.
Murray Deaker has been interviewing the biggest names in sport for 40 years. 'Murray Deaker’s Sporting Lives' will interview legends of sport, uncovering their stories. Full of memories, theories, and opinion. And no nonsense! 'Murray Deaker’s Sporting Lives' podcast brought to you by Gold Sport.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gold Sport presents Murray Deeker's Sporting Lives with Calloway, the
leading manufacturer of premium golf clubs, balls and accessories worldwide.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hi Murray Deeker here, Welcome to my podcast, Murray Deaker's
Sporting Lives. During my career, I've spent forty years interviewing
the biggest names in sport. I'm thrilled to bring you
this podcast, talking to sporting legends and giving you a
look into their world, to hear their memories, their stories
(00:31):
and some opinion too. With the Warriors in RL season over,
we chat to one of the greats of the game,
Stacey Jones, a former Warrior and Kiwi. He's now switched
to coaching as the Warrior's assistant and he's been appointed
head coach of our national side. Let's get to it.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Gold Sport presents Murray Deeker's Sporting Lives with Calloway.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Stacey Jones commands a place among the most outstanding New
Zealand athletes. He was a fan favorite with not only
rugby league people, but right across the sporting spectrum. I
don't often agree with politicians, but the former Prime Minister
Helen Clark said he's the epitome of a New Zealand champion.
(01:23):
In fact, I've never ever heard anyone say a bad
word about him, he joins us Stace. How much of
your modesty and humility do you put down to your
family upbringing and how much do you put down to
what you've learned on rugby league fields from Point Chef
(01:44):
to the sun Court Stadium to Wembley Murray.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yes, first all, thanks for having me, and that introduction
you gave was very very kind. Bringing was that I
can have asked for better upbringing my parents as far
as supporting their kids. I got two older brothers and
myself with what we wanted to do, we're right behind
(02:10):
us and always taken us to you know, to our
league trainings and watching us in footy games, and you know,
if we ever needed to do fundraising events, my parents
were right there behind us. My father was always the
manager of footy teams that I was involved with, that
(02:32):
my brothers were involved with, and my mother was always
involved with you know, club committee stuff and all that.
She was either secretary or the treasurer or different things
like that. So I was very fortunate that I had
a really good upbringing from my parents and also being
able to kick a footyball around with two older brothers.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
You are grassroots rugby league, the grandchild of a rugby league. Great.
Tell me about among Emery and his influence on you.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yeah, obviously a big influence as far as him representing
New Zealand the Kiwis, which you know was always a
childhood dream of mine to do that, and you know,
for someone to in my family and someone close to
me that did it sort of instilled that uniqueness around
(03:24):
how how awesome it would have been, how brilliant was
and you know, I know he was very strict on
his children, but towards his grandchildren, you know, he gave us,
you know, we were never in trouble with him. Always
some some good advice that he gave us. But now
he was that guy that you know. He lived next
door to the Gables Pub in Herne Bay and it
(03:47):
was before you know, uh Trail and rag Bley Games
came became on TV, came on TV to New Zealand
and that the Gables had a satellite dish on their
roof and he was able to hook that satellite up
to his house every Saturday and Sunday when the footy
season was on. You know, I'd always be over there
(04:10):
getting first hand of watching. You know, back then was
Windfield Cup as a you know, eight, nine, ten year old,
so I was very lucky.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
And at about that age too in the morning you
were playing for well, a number of clubs, Ponsonby Ponies,
Mount Albert Lyons and of course the one that's so
dear to your heart, Point Chef Pirates and the whole
family there to support you.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
I started with Ponsonby because we lived in Herne Bay
when I was young, so I started playing when I
was three years old. And then Ponsonby couldn't field a
team for my age because I was playing up up
a couple of years with my brothers, and then I
had to move to Mount Albert because they had a
team there, and then the family moved to Pointchef when
I was about nine, and you know, played all of
(04:56):
my career at Point Chef from from that stage on
and some very fond memories and I've pretty much lived
in Point Cheer all my life and still follow the
club to this day.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
You started at the age of three.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Well, I put the gear on it, three, the uniform
on it three, my brothers, I got twin brothers, and
they're two years older than me, so I just went
for the ride. I think I picked daisies for the
first year.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Or you had very quick development though at high school. Incidentally,
did you play rugby union or did you play league?
Speaker 3 (05:36):
I gabbled in rugby union, Mary, and I really look.
I love rugby union. I love watching it growing up.
I remember getting up early hours of the morning and
watching you know, the All Blacks play, you know, when
they were over in Europe, getting up early watching those games.
So league was always in the blood. But I had
(05:57):
a real good fascination about ruggy. I wanted to play it,
and I was fortunate enough to play rugby in the
league in the morning, and then I played a little
bit of rugby in the afternoon. And then once we've
got under fifteen's league became the afternoon and I was
able to play sort of restricted wake rugby in the morning.
(06:19):
So yeah, I dad would have both. Then I really
enjoyed playing rugby. It was a game, you know, like
I like kicking the ball, so back then there was
a lot of kicking in rugby, so it helped me
with my league too.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
You made quick development and ended up captaining the junior
Kiwis tour that went to Australia in nineteen ninety four. Stacy,
what are your memories of that trip and the players
you played against.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Yeah, it was a while ago now, Mary, but I
do have some good memories. I remember our first game
we played in parts actually the New South Wales in
Australia give us a bit of a a hiding in
that team. You know, there were lots of players that
went on to play in r albert In particularly it
was Brett Camawley who went on to win a premiership
(07:07):
with Melbourne, and Darren Lockyer was also in that team,
and lots of other players that had small, smaller careers.
But the other two that stood out and then we
played them in the second Test and we beat them,
So there was one all in the team that I played.
We had Joe and Nigel Wagner who went on to
have a really really good careers themselves. Robbie Paul was
(07:30):
in that team. Yeah, we had a good, good, strong
team as well.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
You're usually the smallest player on the field and over
the years I became amazed that you didn't get injured more.
For example, between nineteen ninety five and nineteen ninety nine,
you played one hundred consecutive first grade matches for the Warriors.
What do you put it down to?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
You know what, Mary, Back back when I was playing half,
we're we're not meant to tackle. They didn't have well,
they didn't have to tackle. Uh. Look, I was well
looked after by players that I played with, you know,
good forward packs and that that that were very strong.
(08:16):
So but I guess, you know, if I think about it,
I was someone that was was always really fit, and
that's an important part of the game that you are fit.
You know. I really enjoyed training in the gym. I
really enjoyed the fitness, the running side of things. So
throughout my career I felt that I was always, you know,
(08:38):
one of the fittest in the team, and I felt
that put me in good good stead.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Was it exciting when the Warriors were launched?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
It was. It was unreal, you know. It was at
a stage of my development where lots of players were
heading overseas. My good mate Owen Gooda and Bill he
went to Australia. He went to Madly when he was sixteen.
Robbie Paul he went to the UK when he was seventeen,
(09:07):
and when I turned seventeen, when I was sixteen seventeen,
the Warriors had just been launched as far that was
ninety four, but we're obviously coming into the competition in
ninety five and I was turning eighteen that year. So look,
I was very fortunate enough that I was able to
at the time of it all just worked, worked really well,
(09:28):
and it was amazing when they came on board.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Huge crowd turned up that very first night I was there.
You played the Broncos. It was a super game, and
you know, as an outsider, I thought this outfit is
on a roll. It didn't happen, and by two thousand
the Warriors were bankrupt and sold for the second time
(09:51):
in their short history. How did that affect you?
Speaker 3 (09:56):
That was really tough at the time. I remember pretty clearly.
We were going through stages of not getting paid, which
was really hard, and especially for you know, we had
a lot of young players in the team and a
lot of them had just sort of bought their first
houses in that so you know, it was tough for
(10:18):
a lot of players that the club was in a
difficult situation, and you know, very fortunate that the club
survived that.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Period they say, you know, the darkest hours just before
the dawn, and it certainly was in the case of
the Warriors and yourself. From two thousand and one through
to two thousand and three you led the Warriors to
three successive final appearances. Now, your co captain at the
(10:48):
time was Kevin Campion. Had a face like beetroot and
a heart like far Lap. Was here the epitome of
a rugby league forward.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
He certainly was as far as that that player that
came to the Warriors, to New Zealand, that that reshaped
a lot of our our forward play. You know, guys
like Armen Gudenbill and Logan Swan. We're already kind of
established but not quite established where camp Campo came in
and taught them a different way of being tough, you know,
(11:24):
putting your body on the line, and he really led
the way away with that Campo he you know, it
was probably one of the very first legacies of Australian
forwards that have that have come here and done that.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
You know.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
After after him came Michael Luck you know, think Steve Price,
uh and I believe you know we've got one at
the club now and some like Mitch Barnett. You know,
so Campo was probably you could say, the pioneer of
that that tough edged Ossie Ford that they have a
lot of in Australia, but we were able to get
(12:01):
a really good one in campaign.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
In that year two thousand and two. That is a
great year for you. He scored a brilliant try against
the Roosters in the Grand Final. You were the player
of the series for the Kiwis against Britain. You became
only the second New Zealand player to win the Golden
Boot Award and for those of us weren't sure what
that was for, that was the award for the world's
(12:24):
best player. Mate, What was it like to be the
top of the world. There's a little fellow from from
buds here.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Yeah, that was. It was a wonderful year as far
as you know, the ride that we went on. And
you know, but it's also probably one that hurts the
most too, Murray, Like it's so hard to you know,
just make playoffs in the NRL, let alone make a
Grand Final and you know, disappointing that I couldn't win one,
(12:56):
which is probably what hurts the most, you know, because
there's there's lots of plays that don't even get to
Grand Finals, but there's lots of players that's players that
have won multiple Premierships. So yeah, look, it was a
wonderful ride that we went on that year, finished off
by a long tour to the UK, but obviously one
that that also hurts.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Why do you think the Warriors didn't kick on after
that Grand Final and establish a dynasty?
Speaker 3 (13:25):
A good question, good, very good question, Murray. Look, Eric
Watson was the owner at the time, and you know,
a businessman and everything he did, he wanted to win.
I wanted to you know, very successful at what he did,
and he came in as the owner of the Warriors
and got success straight away. As far as you know,
(13:50):
where the club had been before we spoke earlier in
two thousand, the club was nearly gone and he he
came onward and his first year making playoffs, second year
making a Grand Final, third year one game away from
making another Grand Final, and I think he felt that
there wasn't any he wanted improvement, you know, and I
(14:12):
think it was drastic changes that he was he looked
at and I think one of the biggest things that
ever happened to the club. One of the biggest things,
but one of the most probably disgraceful things that ever
happened to the club was moving Ali Lao Titi. You know,
one of the greatest gifted footballers that you'll ever see,
(14:34):
and he was made a scapegoat at the time. And
you know, when you got a lot of people that
look up to Ali and see what he can do,
and then that happens to him, you know, players lose
a lot of respect, People lose a lot of respect
for the club and for what they're doing for So
(14:54):
that had a huge effect and from there the club
just just couldn't find its way back, you know, when
it was heading in a good direction, trying to do
something that that backfired. And look, I'm not saying was
there at Watson that did it, but obviously he's at
the top. He had Mit Watson at the top, Daniel
Anderson at the top, so you know, between them, they
would have had to come up with a decision to
(15:15):
do that. And you know, if you look back, I'm
pretty sure that they would have done things differently.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
And would that be for money? Would it because they
could sell Ali Latiti off to another club?
Speaker 3 (15:27):
No, No, I don't think it was for money. I
think it was just you know, the team. So we're
talking two thousand and four now, the start of two
thousand and four, and we had a we had a
very difficult start to that year. We I think we
lost four out of our first five games, so you know,
we were looking at we need to do something here.
(15:48):
I know that year we also changed the way we trained.
We we got bashed up in a preliminary semi final
against Penrith that went on to win the comp in
two thousand and three, and Daniel Anderson, the coach at
the time, said we need to get bigger, we need
to be a bigger team. And I remember we hardly
(16:09):
did any running that year. We were in the gym
a lot, we were lifting weights, we were swimming, We
did everything to get bigger. And then when we ran
out on the field, yet we were bigger, but we
were slower and it sort of again backfired on us
and got off to a bad start, and then as
things moved along, we just couldn't get ourselves out of it.
(16:30):
And you know, I think Arlie was used as as
a bit of a scapegoat why we weren't where we
were at and it hadn't definitely was it was not
Arlie's fault.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Gold Sport presents Murray Digger's sporting lives with Callaway.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
You retired in two thousand and four at the end
of this bad year, and then Bluis McLennan was coaching
the Kiwi's and he talked you into coming back. Rarely
do we see a player succeed when they come back,
but you did. You led the Keywis to victory over
Australia in Sydney. That's the first time that had happened
(17:14):
for fifty years. And that followed the tour of England
and I record you setting up four tries in a
forty two to twenty six victory over the Palms. However,
the result that probably sticks most in our minds is
the twenty four nilwyn over Australia because they hadn't lost
a series for twenty seven years. Put all that together,
(17:37):
why was Blue so successful at coaching the Kiwis.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
A good question.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
I had retired from international footy in four I just
felt I needed to give everything to club and then
yet Blue rung me up and so let's go for
a coffee and he asked would I be interested in
coming back and helping out up and I, uh, I
(18:04):
didn't say yes straight away, but you know, I thank
Louis for you for thinking of me in that way.
And I think it was probably about a dozen coffees later.
And also we had had a pretty good manager at
the time too, in the Mad Butcher. He was a
part of it. And also Ruben Wiki was also on
(18:31):
my back come out and come back and play and look,
it was one of the best calls I made. And
I thank those people for allowing me to come back
into the Kiwi Jersey and and I thoroughly enjoyed my
final years and playing in the Kiwis.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Have you ever been anyone else fanatical about anything as
the Mad Butchers about rugby league?
Speaker 3 (18:54):
No short answer, No, what a what a wonderful person
he's been for the game and wonderful also you know
towards me and how he's treated me and looked after me,
And yeah, he's just been one of the best.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
He's interesting. He gave me some of the best of
best advice to do this job too ages ago, you know,
and you know you don't forget those things.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
You don't know, you don't marry Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Let's tune our attention to the next challenge you're facing,
the key wee coach. Do you think your background in
the game will give you the skills to be a
top coach.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
I dabbled and as a head coach for the Warriors
as an interim and I feel they have different roles too,
like coaching Clubland and coaching Kiwis. And I feel I'm
a lot more suited to coaching as a head coach
in this role as a keyws more of a campaign
coach than you know, a long term seasonal coach. So
(19:54):
I feel my skill set is a lot more suited
to that, you know, having a lot of experience around you,
I feel that this will suit me a lot better
than you know. When I was coaching the Warriors, and
when I did that job, it was as a as
an internment was very tough because we were in difficult
times as we were based in Brisbane in Redcliffe and
(20:18):
traveling backwards and forwards between here and Australia was tough.
So I found myself more managerial than actually coaching, and
and and that's a little bit here too. With this group,
there's a lot of management to be done it's it's
connecting the group because there are a wonderful group of players,
this crop of Keiwi players that we've got at the
(20:38):
moment that the senior leadership group is very strong, So
I feel I'm taking over them and a good time.
Was very fortunate to work with Michael maguire for four
or five years and learn from him some good stuff.
So yeah, I feel like I'm in a good position.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
So when you say you've got a good all the
players just remind us of some of the stars.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Oh look, you know, doesn't get any bigger. James Fisher,
Harris won, you know, three premierships with with Penrith and
the way he goes about things, you know, very very quiet,
but you know knows what he wants and very strong.
Joseph Tuppany from Canberra being in the key system for
(21:26):
for some time now. Karen Forren. You know, he came
came back and played last year and he's part of
that leadership group. Very very very astutid with how he
goes about things and he's playing wonderful football for the
Gold Coast right now. Nelson a Sofa Solomona is really
(21:47):
starting to find his feet for Melbourne a very very
strong player and playing some good footing. And then you've
got the bloke that leads the way for this team,
Jerome Hughes. I feel he's probably been the best player
in the competition all year what he's done for Melbourne.
(22:10):
They've wrapped up the minor premiership. And I know how
he goes about things and and and the way he
thinks about the game. He understands the game. So he's
a very good, strong core of senior leaders in that team.
And last year what what Madge did was, you know,
was very player driven and for that to happen, you
(22:32):
need strong leaders and I feel that this.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Group is that you decided on your captain.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Look, it's going to be James Fisher Harris he you know,
he was the captain last year and he did a
wonderful job. So I think if I was to leave
him out of leave him out of captaincy, I think
I'd I'd be able of a job fairly quickly. Look,
he's an outstanding leader, but he's also got, like I said,
(22:59):
got very good support from the players. Players that I've
also mentioned.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Were you disappointed when Roger to have arkashek opted out
and said that he was going to play for SAMOI know.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
You know what, I was a little bit disappointed, only
because I know what Roger can do, you know, but
I also was happy for him, very respectful for why
he chose some More. We had a very good chat
about it, and you know, look, he when he came
back to league, he said he was going to play
for some More before I'd got the role as Kiwi's coach,
(23:39):
and then you know, we sat down and spoke about it,
and he gave me really good reasons of why, and
I respect that. However, you know, I would love to
have had Roger available for the Kiwis, but not to
be I feel that there's there's good cover there anyway
for those positions.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
You've been assistant coach at the Warriors for a long
time and at the Kiwis. How do you see the
role of an assistant being different from the role of
a coach.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Yeah, the role of a system is really you've got
to have really good support for your head coach. You know,
you've got to challenge challenge him at times, but also
be real supportive and have his back and everything that
he does. And I feel that that's what I'm good
at as an assistant. You know, I have the utmost
(24:31):
respect for whoever is the head coach, and I have
a lot of huge amount of respect for the coach
that's there at the moment. And Andrew Webster. You know,
he's been wonderful towards me. I've actually learned a lot
of football from him in the last two years. Various,
very clever and for such a young guy too, you know,
(24:53):
like how he's gone about it. His apprenticeship started, I
reckon when he was ten years old as far as
being a coach, So I find that's very important that
you have. You have your head coaches back.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
So we've all got a soft spot for you. I
have had one dealing with Andrew Webster and I can
only sing his praises. I think he's just a thoroughly
good man. So we've got two good guys at the top.
So you know what the question is going to be,
what the hell was wrong with the Warriors this year?
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Then? A lot how long have we got Murray? Just
a lot of little things add up, That's the thing.
A lot of like you know, just go back to
starting a year. You know, we have you know, the
best prop of the competition last year, wanted to go home,
and you know, just little things like that and players leaving,
(25:52):
players being injured. You know us, you know sometimes we
mister Marcus coaches on on on little things and you
know they all add up. They all add up to
little things. You know, refree decisions sometimes don't go away,
which we'll found out, but that happens to every team.
You know, every team has those moments. And you know,
(26:13):
I reckon We're a club with probably how many, probably
fifteen other clubs in the comp that need everything to
go their way. They need to have a healthy roster,
they need to have players in form. They just got
to get things right. There's probably two or three teams
that things don't go their way that can still handle it.
(26:35):
And you know, I'm talking a lot of teams like
Melbourne Penrith and probably the Roosters, but every other team
in this comp just needs that little bit of thing
to go their way. But look, we're confident in what
we're doing at the moment as far as what's underneath
the club at the moment. Pathways. We really need to
get our young kids into the system when we probably
(26:58):
need to laugh feel like we need to have a
you know, eighty Kiwis in our team. The cultural side
was huge for our club and the club's invested a
lot of money into into pathways, so hopefully in the
next few years that we'll see a strong local Warriors team.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Gold Sport presents Murray Digger's Sporting Lives with Callaway.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Back to the Kiwis. Have you picked your support coaches,
physio trainer, all that sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Yep, that was probably the first thing that I did,
and also when I interviewed for the process, I sort
of made sure that I had people air mark for
those roles. So what I what I really wanted to
do was keep things as familiar as I could from
from the successful campaign that we had last year. I
found I've done that. We've got Steve Price, not the
(27:56):
Steve Price that played for the Warriors, but Steve Price,
who's very experience in coaching. He'sa Shark's assistant coach. He's
been head coach for Saint George, spent a lot of
time in the UK as a head coach for for Warrington.
So he's our defensive coach and he's very good at
(28:17):
it and the players really respect him. So it was
important for me to get Pricey on board. Nathan Kayless,
who's been with the Kiwi's now for for some time,
has done a pretty good apprenticeship with his coaching, so
he's on board and very fortunate enough that he's He's
(28:38):
a former Keywi captain that won the last World Cup
that the Kiwi's won, so you know, having someone like
him around it was very important. Adam Blair too has
come on board. He was coaching part of our key
we a coaching group last year coached New Zealand Maldis
so he's learning his pathway. But I felt it was
(28:59):
import ordered to have someone that was young, fresh and
could really relate to this proper players as far as
he played with and alongside a lot of them. So
having Blurry then he's very strong with his culture and
that's a big part of the Kiwis team as we
we really respect our culture and where we're from, not
(29:22):
just the multi culture but our Pacific Island culture too,
so Blarry brings a lot of that. And Stephen Kearney
is on board, not as a coach but more as
a leadership advisory role. I feel, you know, Steve Kearney
has probably been our most successful Kiwis coach he was,
you know, he won it when they won the World Cup.
(29:44):
So he's come on board, not not as much as
a coach, but more as a leadership person that can
really help, especially myself in this role. And all our
trainers were similar to last year and physiosimilar to last year.
So again that familiar group of people around will keep things,
(30:04):
keep things in a good way.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
So you've got this wealth of knowledge and having played
the game for the age of three and played it
all the way through, you've lived rugby league your whole life,
and you've played under a variety of coaches. I want
to quick comment on some of these guys that we
all know the names of Daniel Anderson.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Daniel Anderson. Wow, I really started to learn the game,
understand the game a lot more under Daniel, and I
added a couple of things really like might experience me
getting to that age of mid twenties. We've got a
good grasp of the game. But what Daniel was really
good was fundamentals, strong fundamentals. You know, he just couldn't
(30:49):
hammer the basic technique of a simple catch pass, a
simple tackle technique, and he hammered it, and he made
us a better team for that.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Ivan Cleary very calm, very very calm.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
You know, when you talk to him about something, he thinks,
he thinks about it, and then I'll come back with
the answer. But a very calm person.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Shocking decision to get rid of him, I'll just throw
that and you can't say that I can. That is
the biggest shocker, along with a freak Endicott.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Frank just bought energy, really good energy. I love playing
playing for Frank. He gave you a lot of confidence
in your own game. But for pure energy, Frank was
the best.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
Mark Graham very hard, very very knowledgeable, and we all know,
well we most of us should know how Mark Graham
played the game, you know, arguably our best plat ever.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
I just felt for Mark that he didn't have the
best team at the time and he went through that
that period of the club, you know, financially not being
in a good position. But Mark was very clever. Mark
knew the game.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
John Money.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
John Money was my first coach as far as giving
me my opportunity, you know, and you know when I
look back at John, for me, it was it was
a real real quick blur for me, because you get
an opportunity and it's just all excitement, real excitement, and
you know, I was very thankful to John for giving
(32:31):
me the opportunity and he just let me do my thing.
Unfortunately for John, he got sacked in the in the
second year or third year that you know, and I
felt that I was probably just coming in to really
get to know John as a coach.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Brian Bluis McLennan.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Yeah, he he was probably the biggest motivator coach that
I played under. Perfect for a kiwi's role. I know
he had a difficult time with the Warrior, but I
know what he what he did with the keywis arguably, no, no,
not ugibly in my opinion for me, was the best
(33:08):
person that would get you up for a game.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Andrew Webster, I never I don't.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Know, weby just coached with them. Say uh look just again,
you could wrap all the blokes that I've spoken about
and web would have all of those traits. Look he would.
He'd be the coach I would love to have played under.
You know, the traits he brings. He's just he's got
(33:35):
the full package. But I'm biased towards us, so I
can see this because I work with him every day closely.
You know, as a player you just have bits and pieces.
But I work really closely with with Webby.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
How are you going to judge whether you're successful or not.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Oh, look, it's results, murray, and that's what what what
it's all about. You know, I walk away from from
coaching as far as did I get the results that
we wanted. So it's it's purely win loss, you know.
So look as far as the other coaching go and
my coaching go. So like, I've been fortunate enough to
(34:13):
work under a lot of coaches too, like as far
as Michael McGuire, Stephen Kearney, Andrew McFadden. So I've been
lucky in that where I've been able to take a
little bit from all of these coaches and try and
put it together and and be myself too with it.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Yeah, I'm forced a bit there. I'll tell you why.
Because I've known a lot of coaches over the long
time broadcasting. Some of them. Some of them are nasty
pieces of work, all right, not so much people we're
talking about here, but you know, some rugby union coaches
(34:56):
are shockers. They're not available for this. If you if
you speak out against them, they won't talk to you again.
All that sort of rubbish, and yet some of them
have been hugely successful. Everybody says you're a lovely little bloke.
How does a lovely little bloke wouldn't test matches?
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Well, you just got to use your experience of what
you think is going to be is going to work,
you know, And and you're right, Murray, you know you
can't be nice all the time. You know it's going
to There's like when you've got to pick a team,
you've got to make some tough decisions. You've got to
stick up for your team too, you know, so whether
(35:39):
you make someone angry or not for the benefit of
your team. So I understand that, you know, I totally
get it, you know, But what I will say is,
don't be someone else. You've got to be yourself and
but you've also got to make tough course.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
In a recent interview, you said that you're looking for
more tests. I would agree entirely. You've only got three
coming up this year. It's stupid. Why does that happen?
Speaker 3 (36:10):
Look, yeah, the what runs our games is the NRAL,
the clubs and that, and they pay the wages obviously,
where you know, if you if you look at international rugby,
it's different. We need to find more tests, you know.
I know when State of origins on our ki, we
(36:31):
boys are hurting. You know, they should be saying, well,
you know, Australia look at the state of origin as
the pinnacle and our players feel like, you know, they're
the best in the world. They should be playing forty
two and our games should be put, you know, on
a on a level playing field as State of Origin,
(36:51):
and it is disappointing. I feel like you've got to
find something in midyear. You know, Toma and sar Moore
are very strong now with their team their team, so
there isn't there's there's a window there for hopefully that
we could play tests midyear to sort of level it
out of it and get more test matches. So we're
(37:14):
looking for it.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
So what is the schedule the international schedule for the key?
Where's this year? Who are you playing and where?
Speaker 3 (37:22):
So it's the Pacific Championship. Last year it was New Zealand,
Australia and sar Moore Tonga went up to the UK.
This year it's New Zealand, Australia and Tonga played play
each other once and then the top two teams will
play play a final. So our first game is in
(37:43):
Christs against Australia on the twenty seventh of October, and
then a week later we come up to Auckland second
of November and we played Tonga and then hopefully, you know,
we get to play in the final which is in
Sydney a week later. So it's going to be a
very tough, tough contest, Tom and rugby league very strong,
(38:05):
and we know Australia are hurting from losing last year
and we're in a position where you know, we've got
to be better than last year because we know the
competition is going to be better. So that's the window
of chess matches this year, Murray. We'd like more though, Stacey.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
When you were three years old, you couldn't wait to
get out there and run around with guys and and
play rugby league, the game you love. Is your passion
still is great today.
Speaker 3 (38:35):
It's it is it's more so as a three year
old it was a dream. Now it's it's a it's
a reality of where I'm at at the moment, and
I feel very fortunate, very grateful, you know, for what
happened when I was younger to being allowed to do
(38:56):
what I do today. Very grateful to be still a
part of the game in this way and yeah, I'm
really joining where I'm at.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Well, we wish you all the best and I'm sure
that that is every sports fan in the country wants
to see you, in particular, leader team that is going
to cream those Aussies. All the best of luck for
that and with the rest of your future as well.
Been a pleasure talking to you.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
Very appreciate it all the time. Having a check to
you mate. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
That was Kiwi League great Stacy Jones. We wish them
all the best in the upcoming internationals with the Kiwis.
And that was another episode of Murray Deeker's Sporting Lives,
brought to you by Callaway. If you've enjoyed this episode,
please follow the podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you get
(39:56):
your podcasts. We'll be back first Thursday of next month
on Murray Deaker's Sporting Lives m
Gold Sport presents Murray Deeker's Sporting Lives with Calloway, the
leading manufacturer of premium golf clubs, balls and accessories worldwide.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hi Murray Deeker here, Welcome to my podcast, Murray Deaker's
Sporting Lives. During my career, I've spent forty years interviewing
the biggest names in sport. I'm thrilled to bring you
this podcast, talking to sporting legends and giving you a
look into their world, to hear their memories, their stories
(00:31):
and some opinion too. With the Warriors in RL season over,
we chat to one of the greats of the game,
Stacey Jones, a former Warrior and Kiwi. He's now switched
to coaching as the Warrior's assistant and he's been appointed
head coach of our national side. Let's get to it.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Gold Sport presents Murray Deeker's Sporting Lives with Calloway.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Stacey Jones commands a place among the most outstanding New
Zealand athletes. He was a fan favorite with not only
rugby league people, but right across the sporting spectrum. I
don't often agree with politicians, but the former Prime Minister
Helen Clark said he's the epitome of a New Zealand champion.
(01:23):
In fact, I've never ever heard anyone say a bad
word about him, he joins us Stace. How much of
your modesty and humility do you put down to your
family upbringing and how much do you put down to
what you've learned on rugby league fields from Point Chef
(01:44):
to the sun Court Stadium to Wembley Murray.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yes, first all, thanks for having me, and that introduction
you gave was very very kind. Bringing was that I
can have asked for better upbringing my parents as far
as supporting their kids. I got two older brothers and
myself with what we wanted to do, we're right behind
(02:10):
us and always taken us to you know, to our
league trainings and watching us in footy games, and you know,
if we ever needed to do fundraising events, my parents
were right there behind us. My father was always the
manager of footy teams that I was involved with, that
(02:32):
my brothers were involved with, and my mother was always
involved with you know, club committee stuff and all that.
She was either secretary or the treasurer or different things
like that. So I was very fortunate that I had
a really good upbringing from my parents and also being
able to kick a footyball around with two older brothers.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
You are grassroots rugby league, the grandchild of a rugby league. Great.
Tell me about among Emery and his influence on you.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yeah, obviously a big influence as far as him representing
New Zealand the Kiwis, which you know was always a
childhood dream of mine to do that, and you know,
for someone to in my family and someone close to
me that did it sort of instilled that uniqueness around
(03:24):
how how awesome it would have been, how brilliant was
and you know, I know he was very strict on
his children, but towards his grandchildren, you know, he gave us,
you know, we were never in trouble with him. Always
some some good advice that he gave us. But now
he was that guy that you know. He lived next
door to the Gables Pub in Herne Bay and it
(03:47):
was before you know, uh Trail and rag Bley Games
came became on TV, came on TV to New Zealand
and that the Gables had a satellite dish on their
roof and he was able to hook that satellite up
to his house every Saturday and Sunday when the footy
season was on. You know, I'd always be over there
(04:10):
getting first hand of watching. You know, back then was
Windfield Cup as a you know, eight, nine, ten year old,
so I was very lucky.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
And at about that age too in the morning you
were playing for well, a number of clubs, Ponsonby Ponies,
Mount Albert Lyons and of course the one that's so
dear to your heart, Point Chef Pirates and the whole
family there to support you.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
I started with Ponsonby because we lived in Herne Bay
when I was young, so I started playing when I
was three years old. And then Ponsonby couldn't field a
team for my age because I was playing up up
a couple of years with my brothers, and then I
had to move to Mount Albert because they had a
team there, and then the family moved to Pointchef when
I was about nine, and you know, played all of
(04:56):
my career at Point Chef from from that stage on
and some very fond memories and I've pretty much lived
in Point Cheer all my life and still follow the
club to this day.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
You started at the age of three.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Well, I put the gear on it, three, the uniform
on it three, my brothers, I got twin brothers, and
they're two years older than me, so I just went
for the ride. I think I picked daisies for the
first year.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Or you had very quick development though at high school. Incidentally,
did you play rugby union or did you play league?
Speaker 3 (05:36):
I gabbled in rugby union, Mary, and I really look.
I love rugby union. I love watching it growing up.
I remember getting up early hours of the morning and
watching you know, the All Blacks play, you know, when
they were over in Europe, getting up early watching those games.
So league was always in the blood. But I had
(05:57):
a real good fascination about ruggy. I wanted to play it,
and I was fortunate enough to play rugby in the
league in the morning, and then I played a little
bit of rugby in the afternoon. And then once we've
got under fifteen's league became the afternoon and I was
able to play sort of restricted wake rugby in the morning.
(06:19):
So yeah, I dad would have both. Then I really
enjoyed playing rugby. It was a game, you know, like
I like kicking the ball, so back then there was
a lot of kicking in rugby, so it helped me
with my league too.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
You made quick development and ended up captaining the junior
Kiwis tour that went to Australia in nineteen ninety four. Stacy,
what are your memories of that trip and the players
you played against.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Yeah, it was a while ago now, Mary, but I
do have some good memories. I remember our first game
we played in parts actually the New South Wales in
Australia give us a bit of a a hiding in
that team. You know, there were lots of players that
went on to play in r albert In particularly it
was Brett Camawley who went on to win a premiership
(07:07):
with Melbourne, and Darren Lockyer was also in that team,
and lots of other players that had small, smaller careers.
But the other two that stood out and then we
played them in the second Test and we beat them,
So there was one all in the team that I played.
We had Joe and Nigel Wagner who went on to
have a really really good careers themselves. Robbie Paul was
(07:30):
in that team. Yeah, we had a good, good, strong
team as well.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
You're usually the smallest player on the field and over
the years I became amazed that you didn't get injured more.
For example, between nineteen ninety five and nineteen ninety nine,
you played one hundred consecutive first grade matches for the Warriors.
What do you put it down to?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
You know what, Mary, Back back when I was playing half,
we're we're not meant to tackle. They didn't have well,
they didn't have to tackle. Uh. Look, I was well
looked after by players that I played with, you know,
good forward packs and that that that were very strong.
(08:16):
So but I guess, you know, if I think about it,
I was someone that was was always really fit, and
that's an important part of the game that you are fit.
You know. I really enjoyed training in the gym. I
really enjoyed the fitness, the running side of things. So
throughout my career I felt that I was always, you know,
(08:38):
one of the fittest in the team, and I felt
that put me in good good stead.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Was it exciting when the Warriors were launched?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
It was. It was unreal, you know. It was at
a stage of my development where lots of players were
heading overseas. My good mate Owen Gooda and Bill he
went to Australia. He went to Madly when he was sixteen.
Robbie Paul he went to the UK when he was seventeen,
(09:07):
and when I turned seventeen, when I was sixteen seventeen,
the Warriors had just been launched as far that was
ninety four, but we're obviously coming into the competition in
ninety five and I was turning eighteen that year. So look,
I was very fortunate enough that I was able to
at the time of it all just worked, worked really well,
(09:28):
and it was amazing when they came on board.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Huge crowd turned up that very first night I was there.
You played the Broncos. It was a super game, and
you know, as an outsider, I thought this outfit is
on a roll. It didn't happen, and by two thousand
the Warriors were bankrupt and sold for the second time
(09:51):
in their short history. How did that affect you?
Speaker 3 (09:56):
That was really tough at the time. I remember pretty clearly.
We were going through stages of not getting paid, which
was really hard, and especially for you know, we had
a lot of young players in the team and a
lot of them had just sort of bought their first
houses in that so you know, it was tough for
(10:18):
a lot of players that the club was in a
difficult situation, and you know, very fortunate that the club
survived that.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Period they say, you know, the darkest hours just before
the dawn, and it certainly was in the case of
the Warriors and yourself. From two thousand and one through
to two thousand and three you led the Warriors to
three successive final appearances. Now, your co captain at the
(10:48):
time was Kevin Campion. Had a face like beetroot and
a heart like far Lap. Was here the epitome of
a rugby league forward.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
He certainly was as far as that that player that
came to the Warriors, to New Zealand, that that reshaped
a lot of our our forward play. You know, guys
like Armen Gudenbill and Logan Swan. We're already kind of
established but not quite established where camp Campo came in
and taught them a different way of being tough, you know,
(11:24):
putting your body on the line, and he really led
the way away with that Campo he you know, it
was probably one of the very first legacies of Australian
forwards that have that have come here and done that.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
You know.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
After after him came Michael Luck you know, think Steve Price,
uh and I believe you know we've got one at
the club now and some like Mitch Barnett. You know,
so Campo was probably you could say, the pioneer of
that that tough edged Ossie Ford that they have a
lot of in Australia, but we were able to get
(12:01):
a really good one in campaign.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
In that year two thousand and two. That is a
great year for you. He scored a brilliant try against
the Roosters in the Grand Final. You were the player
of the series for the Kiwis against Britain. You became
only the second New Zealand player to win the Golden
Boot Award and for those of us weren't sure what
that was for, that was the award for the world's
(12:24):
best player. Mate, What was it like to be the
top of the world. There's a little fellow from from
buds here.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Yeah, that was. It was a wonderful year as far
as you know, the ride that we went on. And
you know, but it's also probably one that hurts the
most too, Murray, Like it's so hard to you know,
just make playoffs in the NRL, let alone make a
Grand Final and you know, disappointing that I couldn't win one,
(12:56):
which is probably what hurts the most, you know, because
there's there's lots of plays that don't even get to
Grand Finals, but there's lots of players that's players that
have won multiple Premierships. So yeah, look, it was a
wonderful ride that we went on that year, finished off
by a long tour to the UK, but obviously one
that that also hurts.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Why do you think the Warriors didn't kick on after
that Grand Final and establish a dynasty?
Speaker 3 (13:25):
A good question, good, very good question, Murray. Look, Eric
Watson was the owner at the time, and you know,
a businessman and everything he did, he wanted to win.
I wanted to you know, very successful at what he did,
and he came in as the owner of the Warriors
and got success straight away. As far as you know,
(13:50):
where the club had been before we spoke earlier in
two thousand, the club was nearly gone and he he
came onward and his first year making playoffs, second year
making a Grand Final, third year one game away from
making another Grand Final, and I think he felt that
there wasn't any he wanted improvement, you know, and I
(14:12):
think it was drastic changes that he was he looked
at and I think one of the biggest things that
ever happened to the club. One of the biggest things,
but one of the most probably disgraceful things that ever
happened to the club was moving Ali Lao Titi. You know,
one of the greatest gifted footballers that you'll ever see,
(14:34):
and he was made a scapegoat at the time. And
you know, when you got a lot of people that
look up to Ali and see what he can do,
and then that happens to him, you know, players lose
a lot of respect, People lose a lot of respect
for the club and for what they're doing for So
(14:54):
that had a huge effect and from there the club
just just couldn't find its way back, you know, when
it was heading in a good direction, trying to do
something that that backfired. And look, I'm not saying was
there at Watson that did it, but obviously he's at
the top. He had Mit Watson at the top, Daniel
Anderson at the top, so you know, between them, they
would have had to come up with a decision to
(15:15):
do that. And you know, if you look back, I'm
pretty sure that they would have done things differently.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
And would that be for money? Would it because they
could sell Ali Latiti off to another club?
Speaker 3 (15:27):
No, No, I don't think it was for money. I
think it was just you know, the team. So we're
talking two thousand and four now, the start of two
thousand and four, and we had a we had a
very difficult start to that year. We I think we
lost four out of our first five games, so you know,
we were looking at we need to do something here.
(15:48):
I know that year we also changed the way we trained.
We we got bashed up in a preliminary semi final
against Penrith that went on to win the comp in
two thousand and three, and Daniel Anderson, the coach at
the time, said we need to get bigger, we need
to be a bigger team. And I remember we hardly
(16:09):
did any running that year. We were in the gym
a lot, we were lifting weights, we were swimming, We
did everything to get bigger. And then when we ran
out on the field, yet we were bigger, but we
were slower and it sort of again backfired on us
and got off to a bad start, and then as
things moved along, we just couldn't get ourselves out of it.
(16:30):
And you know, I think Arlie was used as as
a bit of a scapegoat why we weren't where we
were at and it hadn't definitely was it was not
Arlie's fault.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Gold Sport presents Murray Digger's sporting lives with Callaway.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
You retired in two thousand and four at the end
of this bad year, and then Bluis McLennan was coaching
the Kiwi's and he talked you into coming back. Rarely
do we see a player succeed when they come back,
but you did. You led the Keywis to victory over
Australia in Sydney. That's the first time that had happened
(17:14):
for fifty years. And that followed the tour of England
and I record you setting up four tries in a
forty two to twenty six victory over the Palms. However,
the result that probably sticks most in our minds is
the twenty four nilwyn over Australia because they hadn't lost
a series for twenty seven years. Put all that together,
(17:37):
why was Blue so successful at coaching the Kiwis.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
A good question.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
I had retired from international footy in four I just
felt I needed to give everything to club and then
yet Blue rung me up and so let's go for
a coffee and he asked would I be interested in
coming back and helping out up and I, uh, I
(18:04):
didn't say yes straight away, but you know, I thank
Louis for you for thinking of me in that way.
And I think it was probably about a dozen coffees later.
And also we had had a pretty good manager at
the time too, in the Mad Butcher. He was a
part of it. And also Ruben Wiki was also on
(18:31):
my back come out and come back and play and look,
it was one of the best calls I made. And
I thank those people for allowing me to come back
into the Kiwi Jersey and and I thoroughly enjoyed my
final years and playing in the Kiwis.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Have you ever been anyone else fanatical about anything as
the Mad Butchers about rugby league?
Speaker 3 (18:54):
No short answer, No, what a what a wonderful person
he's been for the game and wonderful also you know
towards me and how he's treated me and looked after me,
And yeah, he's just been one of the best.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
He's interesting. He gave me some of the best of
best advice to do this job too ages ago, you know,
and you know you don't forget those things.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
You don't know, you don't marry Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Let's tune our attention to the next challenge you're facing,
the key wee coach. Do you think your background in
the game will give you the skills to be a
top coach.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
I dabbled and as a head coach for the Warriors
as an interim and I feel they have different roles too,
like coaching Clubland and coaching Kiwis. And I feel I'm
a lot more suited to coaching as a head coach
in this role as a keyws more of a campaign
coach than you know, a long term seasonal coach. So
(19:54):
I feel my skill set is a lot more suited
to that, you know, having a lot of experience around you,
I feel that this will suit me a lot better
than you know. When I was coaching the Warriors, and
when I did that job, it was as a as
an internment was very tough because we were in difficult
times as we were based in Brisbane in Redcliffe and
(20:18):
traveling backwards and forwards between here and Australia was tough.
So I found myself more managerial than actually coaching, and
and and that's a little bit here too. With this group,
there's a lot of management to be done it's it's
connecting the group because there are a wonderful group of players,
this crop of Keiwi players that we've got at the
(20:38):
moment that the senior leadership group is very strong, So
I feel I'm taking over them and a good time.
Was very fortunate to work with Michael maguire for four
or five years and learn from him some good stuff.
So yeah, I feel like I'm in a good position.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
So when you say you've got a good all the
players just remind us of some of the stars.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Oh look, you know, doesn't get any bigger. James Fisher,
Harris won, you know, three premierships with with Penrith and
the way he goes about things, you know, very very quiet,
but you know knows what he wants and very strong.
Joseph Tuppany from Canberra being in the key system for
(21:26):
for some time now. Karen Forren. You know, he came
came back and played last year and he's part of
that leadership group. Very very very astutid with how he
goes about things and he's playing wonderful football for the
Gold Coast right now. Nelson a Sofa Solomona is really
(21:47):
starting to find his feet for Melbourne a very very
strong player and playing some good footing. And then you've
got the bloke that leads the way for this team,
Jerome Hughes. I feel he's probably been the best player
in the competition all year what he's done for Melbourne.
(22:10):
They've wrapped up the minor premiership. And I know how
he goes about things and and and the way he
thinks about the game. He understands the game. So he's
a very good, strong core of senior leaders in that team.
And last year what what Madge did was, you know,
was very player driven and for that to happen, you
(22:32):
need strong leaders and I feel that this.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Group is that you decided on your captain.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Look, it's going to be James Fisher Harris he you know,
he was the captain last year and he did a
wonderful job. So I think if I was to leave
him out of leave him out of captaincy, I think
I'd I'd be able of a job fairly quickly. Look,
he's an outstanding leader, but he's also got, like I said,
(22:59):
got very good support from the players. Players that I've
also mentioned.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Were you disappointed when Roger to have arkashek opted out
and said that he was going to play for SAMOI know.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
You know what, I was a little bit disappointed, only
because I know what Roger can do, you know, but
I also was happy for him, very respectful for why
he chose some More. We had a very good chat
about it, and you know, look, he when he came
back to league, he said he was going to play
for some More before I'd got the role as Kiwi's coach,
(23:39):
and then you know, we sat down and spoke about it,
and he gave me really good reasons of why, and
I respect that. However, you know, I would love to
have had Roger available for the Kiwis, but not to
be I feel that there's there's good cover there anyway
for those positions.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
You've been assistant coach at the Warriors for a long
time and at the Kiwis. How do you see the
role of an assistant being different from the role of
a coach.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Yeah, the role of a system is really you've got
to have really good support for your head coach. You know,
you've got to challenge challenge him at times, but also
be real supportive and have his back and everything that
he does. And I feel that that's what I'm good
at as an assistant. You know, I have the utmost
(24:31):
respect for whoever is the head coach, and I have
a lot of huge amount of respect for the coach
that's there at the moment. And Andrew Webster. You know,
he's been wonderful towards me. I've actually learned a lot
of football from him in the last two years. Various,
very clever and for such a young guy too, you know,
(24:53):
like how he's gone about it. His apprenticeship started, I
reckon when he was ten years old as far as
being a coach, So I find that's very important that
you have. You have your head coaches back.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
So we've all got a soft spot for you. I
have had one dealing with Andrew Webster and I can
only sing his praises. I think he's just a thoroughly
good man. So we've got two good guys at the top.
So you know what the question is going to be,
what the hell was wrong with the Warriors this year?
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Then? A lot how long have we got Murray? Just
a lot of little things add up, That's the thing.
A lot of like you know, just go back to
starting a year. You know, we have you know, the
best prop of the competition last year, wanted to go home,
and you know, just little things like that and players leaving,
(25:52):
players being injured. You know us, you know sometimes we
mister Marcus coaches on on on little things and you
know they all add up. They all add up to
little things. You know, refree decisions sometimes don't go away,
which we'll found out, but that happens to every team.
You know, every team has those moments. And you know,
(26:13):
I reckon We're a club with probably how many, probably
fifteen other clubs in the comp that need everything to
go their way. They need to have a healthy roster,
they need to have players in form. They just got
to get things right. There's probably two or three teams
that things don't go their way that can still handle it.
(26:35):
And you know, I'm talking a lot of teams like
Melbourne Penrith and probably the Roosters, but every other team
in this comp just needs that little bit of thing
to go their way. But look, we're confident in what
we're doing at the moment as far as what's underneath
the club at the moment. Pathways. We really need to
get our young kids into the system when we probably
(26:58):
need to laugh feel like we need to have a
you know, eighty Kiwis in our team. The cultural side
was huge for our club and the club's invested a
lot of money into into pathways, so hopefully in the
next few years that we'll see a strong local Warriors team.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Gold Sport presents Murray Digger's Sporting Lives with Callaway.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Back to the Kiwis. Have you picked your support coaches,
physio trainer, all that sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Yep, that was probably the first thing that I did,
and also when I interviewed for the process, I sort
of made sure that I had people air mark for
those roles. So what I what I really wanted to
do was keep things as familiar as I could from
from the successful campaign that we had last year. I
found I've done that. We've got Steve Price, not the
(27:56):
Steve Price that played for the Warriors, but Steve Price,
who's very experience in coaching. He'sa Shark's assistant coach. He's
been head coach for Saint George, spent a lot of
time in the UK as a head coach for for Warrington.
So he's our defensive coach and he's very good at
(28:17):
it and the players really respect him. So it was
important for me to get Pricey on board. Nathan Kayless,
who's been with the Kiwi's now for for some time,
has done a pretty good apprenticeship with his coaching, so
he's on board and very fortunate enough that he's He's
(28:38):
a former Keywi captain that won the last World Cup
that the Kiwi's won, so you know, having someone like
him around it was very important. Adam Blair too has
come on board. He was coaching part of our key
we a coaching group last year coached New Zealand Maldis
so he's learning his pathway. But I felt it was
(28:59):
import ordered to have someone that was young, fresh and
could really relate to this proper players as far as
he played with and alongside a lot of them. So
having Blurry then he's very strong with his culture and
that's a big part of the Kiwis team as we
we really respect our culture and where we're from, not
(29:22):
just the multi culture but our Pacific Island culture too,
so Blarry brings a lot of that. And Stephen Kearney
is on board, not as a coach but more as
a leadership advisory role. I feel, you know, Steve Kearney
has probably been our most successful Kiwis coach he was,
you know, he won it when they won the World Cup.
(29:44):
So he's come on board, not not as much as
a coach, but more as a leadership person that can
really help, especially myself in this role. And all our
trainers were similar to last year and physiosimilar to last year.
So again that familiar group of people around will keep things,
(30:04):
keep things in a good way.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
So you've got this wealth of knowledge and having played
the game for the age of three and played it
all the way through, you've lived rugby league your whole life,
and you've played under a variety of coaches. I want
to quick comment on some of these guys that we
all know the names of Daniel Anderson.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Daniel Anderson. Wow, I really started to learn the game,
understand the game a lot more under Daniel, and I
added a couple of things really like might experience me
getting to that age of mid twenties. We've got a
good grasp of the game. But what Daniel was really
good was fundamentals, strong fundamentals. You know, he just couldn't
(30:49):
hammer the basic technique of a simple catch pass, a
simple tackle technique, and he hammered it, and he made
us a better team for that.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Ivan Cleary very calm, very very calm.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
You know, when you talk to him about something, he thinks,
he thinks about it, and then I'll come back with
the answer. But a very calm person.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Shocking decision to get rid of him, I'll just throw
that and you can't say that I can. That is
the biggest shocker, along with a freak Endicott.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Frank just bought energy, really good energy. I love playing
playing for Frank. He gave you a lot of confidence
in your own game. But for pure energy, Frank was
the best.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
Mark Graham very hard, very very knowledgeable, and we all know,
well we most of us should know how Mark Graham
played the game, you know, arguably our best plat ever.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
I just felt for Mark that he didn't have the
best team at the time and he went through that
that period of the club, you know, financially not being
in a good position. But Mark was very clever. Mark
knew the game.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
John Money.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
John Money was my first coach as far as giving
me my opportunity, you know, and you know when I
look back at John, for me, it was it was
a real real quick blur for me, because you get
an opportunity and it's just all excitement, real excitement, and
you know, I was very thankful to John for giving
(32:31):
me the opportunity and he just let me do my thing.
Unfortunately for John, he got sacked in the in the
second year or third year that you know, and I
felt that I was probably just coming in to really
get to know John as a coach.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Brian Bluis McLennan.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Yeah, he he was probably the biggest motivator coach that
I played under. Perfect for a kiwi's role. I know
he had a difficult time with the Warrior, but I
know what he what he did with the keywis arguably, no, no,
not ugibly in my opinion for me, was the best
(33:08):
person that would get you up for a game.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Andrew Webster, I never I don't.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Know, weby just coached with them. Say uh look just again,
you could wrap all the blokes that I've spoken about
and web would have all of those traits. Look he would.
He'd be the coach I would love to have played under.
You know, the traits he brings. He's just he's got
(33:35):
the full package. But I'm biased towards us, so I
can see this because I work with him every day closely.
You know, as a player you just have bits and pieces.
But I work really closely with with Webby.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
How are you going to judge whether you're successful or not.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Oh, look, it's results, murray, and that's what what what
it's all about. You know, I walk away from from
coaching as far as did I get the results that
we wanted. So it's it's purely win loss, you know.
So look as far as the other coaching go and
my coaching go. So like, I've been fortunate enough to
(34:13):
work under a lot of coaches too, like as far
as Michael McGuire, Stephen Kearney, Andrew McFadden. So I've been
lucky in that where I've been able to take a
little bit from all of these coaches and try and
put it together and and be myself too with it.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Yeah, I'm forced a bit there. I'll tell you why.
Because I've known a lot of coaches over the long
time broadcasting. Some of them. Some of them are nasty
pieces of work, all right, not so much people we're
talking about here, but you know, some rugby union coaches
(34:56):
are shockers. They're not available for this. If you if
you speak out against them, they won't talk to you again.
All that sort of rubbish, and yet some of them
have been hugely successful. Everybody says you're a lovely little bloke.
How does a lovely little bloke wouldn't test matches?
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Well, you just got to use your experience of what
you think is going to be is going to work,
you know, And and you're right, Murray, you know you
can't be nice all the time. You know it's going
to There's like when you've got to pick a team,
you've got to make some tough decisions. You've got to
stick up for your team too, you know, so whether
(35:39):
you make someone angry or not for the benefit of
your team. So I understand that, you know, I totally
get it, you know, But what I will say is,
don't be someone else. You've got to be yourself and
but you've also got to make tough course.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
In a recent interview, you said that you're looking for
more tests. I would agree entirely. You've only got three
coming up this year. It's stupid. Why does that happen?
Speaker 3 (36:10):
Look, yeah, the what runs our games is the NRAL,
the clubs and that, and they pay the wages obviously,
where you know, if you if you look at international rugby,
it's different. We need to find more tests, you know.
I know when State of origins on our ki, we
(36:31):
boys are hurting. You know, they should be saying, well,
you know, Australia look at the state of origin as
the pinnacle and our players feel like, you know, they're
the best in the world. They should be playing forty
two and our games should be put, you know, on
a on a level playing field as State of Origin,
(36:51):
and it is disappointing. I feel like you've got to
find something in midyear. You know, Toma and sar Moore
are very strong now with their team their team, so
there isn't there's there's a window there for hopefully that
we could play tests midyear to sort of level it
out of it and get more test matches. So we're
(37:14):
looking for it.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
So what is the schedule the international schedule for the key?
Where's this year? Who are you playing and where?
Speaker 3 (37:22):
So it's the Pacific Championship. Last year it was New Zealand,
Australia and sar Moore Tonga went up to the UK.
This year it's New Zealand, Australia and Tonga played play
each other once and then the top two teams will
play play a final. So our first game is in
(37:43):
Christs against Australia on the twenty seventh of October, and
then a week later we come up to Auckland second
of November and we played Tonga and then hopefully, you know,
we get to play in the final which is in
Sydney a week later. So it's going to be a
very tough, tough contest, Tom and rugby league very strong,
(38:05):
and we know Australia are hurting from losing last year
and we're in a position where you know, we've got
to be better than last year because we know the
competition is going to be better. So that's the window
of chess matches this year, Murray. We'd like more though, Stacey.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
When you were three years old, you couldn't wait to
get out there and run around with guys and and
play rugby league, the game you love. Is your passion
still is great today.
Speaker 3 (38:35):
It's it is it's more so as a three year
old it was a dream. Now it's it's a it's
a reality of where I'm at at the moment, and
I feel very fortunate, very grateful, you know, for what
happened when I was younger to being allowed to do
(38:56):
what I do today. Very grateful to be still a
part of the game in this way and yeah, I'm
really joining where I'm at.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Well, we wish you all the best and I'm sure
that that is every sports fan in the country wants
to see you, in particular, leader team that is going
to cream those Aussies. All the best of luck for
that and with the rest of your future as well.
Been a pleasure talking to you.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
Very appreciate it all the time. Having a check to
you mate. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
That was Kiwi League great Stacy Jones. We wish them
all the best in the upcoming internationals with the Kiwis.
And that was another episode of Murray Deeker's Sporting Lives,
brought to you by Callaway. If you've enjoyed this episode,
please follow the podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you get
(39:56):
your podcasts. We'll be back first Thursday of next month
on Murray Deaker's Sporting Lives m
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