League: One of the sport's 7 wonders

Stacey Jones shakes hands with Kiwi Nathan Cayless after the Warriors' game against Parramatta. Picture / Dean Purcell

League is all about having fun, Stacey Jones told the big audience who turned out to pay him respect as he heads to France to wind up his career.

"It's not about forcing a kid - they've got to want to do it. I loved bashing my brothers up and them bashing me up," Jones said of his start in an Auckland backyard.

After starting at the Ponsonby clubs like his older twin brothers, he went on to harass neighbourhood kids to play at every opportunity at Walker Park, home to the Pt Chevalier club he would join as a teen.

Before Jones made his Warriors debut as an 18-year-old, then-coach John Monie had one piece of advice: "All he said was: 'Just have fun'."

Along came Super League.

Jones reckoned he was on about $5000 when the top-line players were called to a meeting at Monie's Titirangi house and a handful of others, including he and Joe Vagana, were sent to a meeting at a city hotel.

"Don't miss the boat," Monie had told him, but Jones admitted that at the time he did not know what his coach meant.

Vagana went into the meeting room first and came out with a huge grin on his face, paddling an imaginary canoe with his brown envelope.

When he saw his own offer, Jones thought, "Geez, this is huge".

"I wanted to buy a new car but Dad told me to put it in the bank. I did for about a week, then I bought a new car."

Graham Lowe rang later that week offering about three times as much to join "another Super League club".

Jones said he had lived a dream, although there was pressure all the time - sometimes great pressure.

"But there's a lot of people who don't get to do what we do."

He had not enjoyed the dark times at the Warriors: 2000 was tough and coach Mark Graham did not have the depth of players.

Last year they had started unfit, lost three games. With their confidence fading, they kept losing.

It was during that time that Jones asked for a release. The club asked him to stay on.

He'd enjoyed this season despite the win-loss record and the struggle in the lower half of the table.

Jones admitted he probably hadn't played at his best, but he felt a weight lift off him once he had made the decision to go to UTC Perpignan.

He does not want to be a coach: "Looking at what they go through, I doubt it."

And a simple "No" was his answer to the question about any desire to be on the other side of the camera, in the media.

When he finishes his two-year contract in France he would like to chill out at the family beach house in the north for a while and think about a future that might include some scouting and development work with youngsters.

He'd keep an interest in the game.

Jones nominated the 2002 grand final as his career highlight, but was wistful about the 30-8 result.

"To see the look on the Roosters' faces, how happy they were, you wanted to feel like that."

He said the present Warriors could improve to be contenders if they took on board the lessons from several close losses this year.

Jones admitted that it had taken him a while to feel comfortable giving his team-mates a serve when they made mistakes.

"I've learned over the last couple of years that I've got to put it on them, then get on with it."

His withdrawal from the selection process for the Kiwis after 34 tests was "not totally my call". No further discussion.

Jones said he needed to do something fresh after 11 years at the Warriors, and he was looking forward to the new challenge.

He'd like a big crowd for his last game at Ericsson Stadium.

There's no doubt about that.