But it was not just his service to Northland rugby that made Sloane well known, but his selection into the All Blacks and his feats as a coach.
Sloane can look back on a record that few Kiwi players could hope to match.
He played 15 matches for New Zealand, including a test against England at Twickenham in 1979, two internationals against Argentina in Argentina in 1976 and two more against Argentina in New Zealand in 1979.
He also featured in 147 games for Northland and 173 first class matches. The hooker served as Northland's regular skipper from 1978-1983 and led Northland to a never-to-be-forgotten upset Ranfurly Shield win over Manawatu in 1978. Sloane kitted up for Northland in six Ranfurly Shield defences, consisting of five wins and an end-of-season loss to Auckland in 1979 and scored 17 tries for Northland plus another three for the All Blacks in his illustrious career.
Sloane also lined up for Barbarians club sides in New Zealand, Australia and Fiji and was named one of New Zealand Rugby Almanack's five most promising players of the year in 1979.
Sloane turned his passion for rugby into a creditable coaching career. Starting at club and then provincial level, he assisted as a specialist forward and scrum coach before being signed on by the NZRU where he was soon sharing his knowledge nationwide.
Once rugby went professional in the early 1990's, Sloane became the assistant coach of the Crusaders where they rose from the bottom of the table, to the top, over a three-year period.
It was after this success he rose in the ranks to become an assistant coach of the All Blacks under John Hart's leadership in 1998-1999 before becoming the Highlanders head coach in 2000-2001 and the Blues head coach between 2002 and 2005. He led the Blues to the 2003 Super 12 championship.
In April 2006 Sloane left to coach in England and then Japan. He currently lives in Christchurch.
POOL CAREER Michael Davidson
The creek on the family farm at Parakao was as good a place as any for Michael Davidson to begin his swimming career but he soon graduated to the pool his father built in the backyard.
Educated at Parakao Primary School, Whangarei Boys High School, Auckland Grammar and Alabama University, Davidson went on to become one of New Zealand's most successful swimmers.
Among his achievements was winning the Mangakahia Swimming Championships in 1975. He first represented Northland as a 9-year-old and had the cup for the swimmer with the most points at the Northland championships under his belt at a very early age. Freestyle became the preferred style and at 15, he had already set many Northland and Auckland records.
Davidson contested the NZ Age Groups in Cambridge and his first overseas tour was with a Northland group to Fiji in 1975. That was to be the first of many overseas trips where he competed in numerous international meets as a New Zealand representative including Australia, US, Japan and Germany, for six years.
During that time, he set many national freestyle records including the 200m, 400m, 800m and the 1500m - some records standing for 10 years. He was also the first New Zealand swimmer to break four minutes for the 400m freestyle.
While at Alabama University on a scholarship Davidson also featured prominently in American swimming at national, state and university levels. For some time he was the eighth ranked 800m freestyler in the world.
But
Davidson represented his nation at two Commonwealth Games (Brisbane and Edinburgh) as well as the Olympic Games in Los Angeles and brought home a bronze medal at Edinburgh in 1986 in the 400m freestyle.
In 1987 Davidson returned to Whangarei as the manager of Ted Elliott Memorial Pool and with his wife Jennifer set up a successful Davidson School of Swimming. He immediately set about putting into practice with the young Northland talent what they had gleaned from the world famous coaches during the previous seven or eight years. Their ability as coaches was soon spotted and they were appointed to a five member coaching staff handling a selected squad which was preparing for the 1990 Commonwealth Games.
