General Survivor series- greatest warrior knock out competition.

[drunk_monk]

Yeah , I never really ever got to watch Stacey play.
I've seen Shaun Johnson maul teams single handedly for 7 years though...
I've heard so much about Stacey and TBF he sounds like a great player.... but he played in some pretty great teams too so idk...

Broooo.

The banana kicks to fa'afili were iconic.

 

[drunk_monk]

But on topic, Jones, Mannering, and Johnson are all club icons that gave us so many great moments.

Jones is the hero in my mind but Mannering was such a glorious work horse and captain.

We had a work day where some peps got asked quick fire questions and in my list was "who would you most like to have dinner with?"

A lot of people gave classic old thinkers and historic peps. Mine.... Simon Mannering. Got some blank looks and when I said iconic league player everyone did a oooooh sound. Like of course Blair chose a league player

Just fucking love the guy.

 

[Cces]

Not too shabby for a guy knocking on 33 years of age & I'll add against the reigning premiers

 

[TeetsNRL]

I reckon the Paul bros would’ve been dynamite as well.
The warriors- making dumb decisions since 95.

That bag of chips we offered Robbie was the best we could do.

Had to keep that big money free for Andy Platt.

 

[drunk_monk]

Fark. I've been staring at the last 2 names for far too long. As if it matters.

Trying to pick between my 2 favourite players.

Mannering, iconic heroic workhorse who ground through no matter how dire shit got.

Jones, the little general who steered the ship and gave us iconic moments and victories.

Fuck it. Joness saviour of the game win Wellington against the doggies so many years ago is what made me a league tragic. Sorry Mr Mannering.

 

[drunk_monk]

First game I ever watched and I saw it live. Warriors tragic ever since.

I know Jones bottled the last conversion to go to a draw instead of win, but he had just kicked way harder conversions ridiculously quick.

Love the little general!

 

[Defence]

So the countdown so far-

10 Vatuvei
9 Wiki
8 Toopi
7 Luck
6 Roger Tuivasa-Sheck
5 Price
4 Lauiti’iti
3 Johnson
2?
1?

So go ahead guys- cast your last vote and remember u are voting for who u want to evict- the player with the most votes will be relegated to runner up status and the player with the least votes the great survivor and unofficial greatest warrior as per this rather unscientific forum competition.
May the best warrior win….

 

[mt.wellington]

This one is easy. I was 15 years old when the Warriors first ran out onto Mt Smart. I watched Stacey Jones as an 18 year old debut and hold his own against players who were taller, bigger and more experienced than him. I watched as he became such a threat he pushed our A list marquee signing Greg Alexander out of the halfback spot. Yeah we sucked some of those years but Stacey was always a beacon of hope for someone like me going through some of my most formative years of my life. His Golden Boot year cemented that for me. I dont care what year we are in nor what other generations will have to say on the matter. It will always be Stacey for me...

 

[Mr Brownstone]

Where would Stacey Jones rank amongst halfbacks from the 1980’s on? I reckon he would be right in amongst it, probably in the 5-7 range. Johns, Thurston clear top 2, then in no particular order Langer, Stuart, Sterling, Jones, Cronk. In my opinion he’s lightyears ahead of any other Warrior.

 

[mt.wellington]

Where would Stacey Jones rank amongst halfbacks from the 1980’s on? I reckon he would be right in amongst it, probably in the 5-7 range. Johns, Thurston clear top 2, then in no particular order Langer, Stuart, Sterling, Jones, Cronk. In my opinion he’s lightyears ahead of any other Warrior.

Interesting question. From the 80's he doesn't make the top 10 IMHO. Hate to say it but you have the likes of Toovey, Langer, Sterling, Thurston, Lockyer, Cronk, Mortimer, Sticky, Brandy, Johns and Cleary ahead of him. He would feature in the high teens of the top 20. Sadly for the Little General he didnt cap off his career with a GF win...

 

[Blackdot]

As someone who is a bit too young to remember Stacey's peak (started following the boys ~'05), I would love to hear any stories people have to share about his exploits. It's a shame that there aren't many highlights of him available.

 

[wizards rage]

Just capping of Shaun Johnson’s elimination, I feel he’s had two versions. Before and after the leg break.

I wonder if he would be top of that list now if he never broke that leg. Similar to Lauitiiti, what could have been?

 

[the borg]

Where would Stacey Jones rank amongst halfbacks from the 1980’s on? I reckon he would be right in amongst it, probably in the 5-7 range. Johns, Thurston clear top 2, then in no particular order Langer, Stuart, Sterling, Jones, Cronk. In my opinion he’s lightyears ahead of any other Warrior.

Tuff one to answer, the rules where different back in the early 80s. The biff was part of the game as well as head high and the odd spear tackle. Pushing and competing scrums etc..
Guys like Rodonikis were big and intimidating to the point of thuggery.. so halfbacks were pretty big fellas back then to be able to handle it. From the superleague fiasco and the more tv exposure the rules changed to focus on entertainment.
So IMO anyway the great halves you mentioned all played in different eras with different rules so too hard to determine whether Stacey could be on par with some of the old timers..

 

[Mr Brownstone]

Interesting question. From the 80's he doesn't make the top 10 IMHO. Hate to say it but you have the likes of Toovey, Langer, Sterling, Thurston, Lockyer, Cronk, Mortimer, Sticky, Brandy, Johns and Cleary ahead of him. He would feature in the high teens of the top 20. Sadly for the Little General he didnt cap off his career with a GF win...

All of those halfbacks (Lockyer a 5-8) certainly achieved more at NRL level in terms of premierships, however no way I’d rate him behind Toovey. The likes of Brandy and Mortimer I’m really not sure on, personally I’d rate Stace ahead of them however perhaps that’s my bias coming through. Cleary is a good call, who knows where he will finish up - our greatest ever ballboy without question!

 

[Mr Brownstone]

Just found a ranking from 2020 of halfbacks from the NRL era, so since 1998, as voted by fans. It went

1. Johns
2. Thurston
3. Cronk
4. Langer
5. Jones
6. Kimmorley
7. Stuart (only played 3 seasons post 1997)
8. DCE

Obviously pre Cleary dominating and post Sterling etc, however no doubting the little general was an elite player.

 

[mrblonde]

Could we set up a Worst Warrior Knockout Competition?
That would be amusing simply because to research the question properly, we’d have to focus on the knock-ons, missed tackles, penalties conceded etc. So enough, I say, of The Elder of the S J’s 2002 GF try, let me bask in Matt Allwood’s best work, exult in seeing some “Not Mah Jerb”defensive attitude, fondly recall the tries bombed with an open tryline begging…

 

[wizards rage]

Just found a ranking from 2020 of halfbacks from the NRL era, so since 1998, as voted by fans. It went

1. Johns
2. Thurston
3. Cronk
4. Langer
5. Jones
6. Kimmorley
7. Stuart (only played 3 seasons post 1997)
8. DCE

Obviously pre Cleary dominating and post Sterling etc, however no doubting the little general was an elite player.

Voted by Australians? That shows how highly Jones is regarded.

I would pretty much agree with that list

 

[Defence]

Voting has now gone behind closed doors with the winner to be announced Christmas Day.

 

[Defence]

I’d like to make a case for mannering- which isn’t hard tbh because he tops jones on almost every metric.

- More games (our only 300 game player)
- More wins 141- 117
- Better winning percentage 47%- 45%
- More finals games 11- 7
- 5 x player of the year to Jones x 1 (In fact he won it so many time in the end they just named it the Simon mannering medal!)
- Most games as captain 137- 74 (many of Stacey’s were as co- captain as well).

Stacey has nostalgia on his side but when u put sentiment aside and look at the facts- the numbers are hard to argue against.

When u look up warrior in the dictionary there’s a picture of Simon mannering

Ryan Hoffman rated him in The top 5 players he ever played with- think about that for a minute- smith, slater, cronk, inglis, mannering.

But I’ll let the man we ranked the number 6 warrior, Michael luck, have the last word…

"I was lucky enough to play alongside some great players. The likes of Stacey Jones, Ruben Wiki, Steve Price and Johnathan Thurston. But Simon would be the first one I'd pick," he said.

"In my opinion none of those guys played with the same level of consistency as Simon, and that's taking nothing away from them, they're all-time greats.

"Simon has never been as dynamic as Stacey and not as physically dominant as Wiki, but every single week you just knew what you were going to get and the difference between his best and his worst game is so minuscule.

"He's a guy everyone wants to play with and nobody wants to play against which is the ultimate compliment."

 

[Fonzie]

I’d like to make a case for mannering- which isn’t hard tbh because he tops jones on almost every metric.

- More games (our only 300 game player)
- More wins 141- 117
- Better winning percentage 47%- 45%
- More finals games 11- 7
- 5 x player of the year to Jones x 1 (In fact he won it so many time in the end they just named it the Simon mannering medal!)
- Most games as captain 137- 74 (many of Stacey’s were as co- captain as well).

Stacey has nostalgia on his side but when u put sentiment aside and look at the facts- the numbers are hard to argue against.

When u look up warrior in the dictionary there’s a picture of Simon mannering

Ryan Hoffman rated him in The top 5 players he ever played with- think about that for a minute- smith, slater, cronk, inglis, mannering.

But I’ll let the man we ranked the number 6 warrior, Michael luck, have the last word…

"I was lucky enough to play alongside some great players. The likes of Stacey Jones, Ruben Wiki, Steve Price and Johnathan Thurston. But Simon would be the first one I'd pick," he said.

"In my opinion none of those guys played with the same level of consistency as Simon, and that's taking nothing away from them, they're all-time greats.

"Simon has never been as dynamic as Stacey and not as physically dominant as Wiki, but every single week you just knew what you were going to get and the difference between his best and his worst game is so minuscule.

"He's a guy everyone wants to play with and nobody wants to play against which is the ultimate compliment."

I feel like I can’t be objective on this because I spent a couple of hours interviewing Simon for the pod and he was such a legend. I’m going to abstain