Peter Jessup: Bon voyage Stacey

Outside my daughter's classroom at Glen Eden Intermediate hangs a wall of posters made by the kids, depicting their heroes.

Among them is one from Quentin Heka, whose number one is Stacey Jones.

"He makes the Warriors work together as a team and he never gets into fights," is one placard on Quentin's mural.

"Stacey Jones never chats back to the ref. He always plays fair and tries his hardest on the field at all times," he writes. "Stacey Jones is trustworthy and reliable, he has excellent ball skills, strength and speed and he makes sure the Warriors play by the rules.

"He has tolerance. He accepts players and people he doesn't like. He shakes hands at the end of all his games."

And in Quentin Heka's words lie the huge loss that Stacey Jones' departure for France means to New Zealand league - not just the Warriors.

For 11 years, Jones has been the Warriors. He is the one constant in a wash of players, coaches and managers.

Quentin is dead right - he makes them work together as a team. It's no coincidence that some of the Warriors' worst performances have come when Jones has been off the field or playing on with injury.

Only 24 players have appeared more than Jones' 236 times for the one club. It will be a record of long-standing at the Warriors, as will the 74 tries and 644 points.

Jones came from a staunch league background - his grandfather, Hone "Maunga" Emery, was a prop who played 23 games for his country. Jones grew up playing against his older brothers and from age four stood out from the other kids.

From the Pt Chevalier Pirates club, he went on to represent Auckland through the junior grades and by age 16, as star halfback for the St Paul's College team, was already in the sights of the new Warriors club.

He was still a teenager when he ended the careers of two great halfbacks, Gary Freeman and Greg Alexander. Freeman made way for him at the 1995 World Cup, Alexander was shifted to fullback at the Warriors.

Jones has stuck with the club ever since, always in the No 7 jersey, the only player from 1995 still there, through all measure of turmoil.

The strain has shown at times. He's had to carry the weight of poor performance by others, in management and on the field.

In 2000 the club hit an all-time low.

But by 2001 they were in the finals for the first time, and the following year was to be his best.

Jones won the Golden Boot award in 2002 for feats that included taking the club to the minor premiership, scoring for the Warriors in the first half of the grand final against the Roosters and scoring six test tries, including touchdowns against Australia and Great Britain.

Unfortunately, injury curtailed his international career when he turned his ankle in his 34th test in Sydney in July the following year and that was followed by groin trouble.

At his best, Jones dazzled defences with quick acceleration from the mark, his ability to spot a gap and take it and then deliver an inside pass, an off-load in the tackle or a short chip-kick.

Opposing players rate him as far stronger than he appears for his 1.7m. His own players know to watch and expect him to go and, when he does, to go with him because tries follow.

Jones has always been a staunch family man, too. He's never enjoyed the limelight, taking it as part of the job but finding far more enjoyment in time with his family and fishing holidays at his Far North beach house.

From the start of his career and all the way through it he's been fronted with offers to go elsewhere. But that home lure has been a big anchor.

At 29, with two young girls, the end of a career in the tough NRL competition looming and injuries starting to be a bigger factor, he has decided to go to new club Union Treiziste Catalane in Perpignan, which enters the Super League next season.

There will still be beaches, maybe fishing.

As Herald columnist Graham Lowe put it last Friday, trying to find another Stacey Jones, for both the Warriors and the Kiwis, will be like walking along a beach kicking over stones in the hope of finding a diamond.

Quentin Heka's poster has another panel where he lists attributes he and Stacey Jones share. Among them, "he's poto (short) like me".

Quentin believes he can be a Stacey Jones and is running around trying to emulate the Little General. He couldn't have a better role model. And in that is the measure of the size of the hole Jones will leave.

Stacey Jones

Born May 7, 1976, Auckland

Educated St Paul's College

1.7m, 82kg halfback

34 tests for the Kiwis 1995-2003 for 15 tries

NRL debut v Eels at Parramatta, round 7, April 23, 1995

236 games for the Warriors. 74 tries, 168 goals, 12 field-goals for 644 points. NZRL Player of the Year 1999 and 2002