NRL: Warming the bench keeps Jones hot

Stacey Jones. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Stacey Jones showed last Sunday against Manly that he is still "The Man". But nowadays he doesn't have to be the only man for the Warriors.

So why send him out in the run-on XIII?

If he starts, he is the major target for every hulking forward in every opposition pack. They will run at him repeatedly and relentlessly, trying to rob him of all stamina and confuse the footballing brain that produced match-winning moments of brilliance against the Eagles.

Would Jones have the impact he was able to deliver when he did come off the interchange bench on Sunday? His late intervention immediately sparked the team to challenge the Eagles line and he then engineered the two late tries to Brent Tate and Jerome Ropati which secured victory.

His chip, regather and delivery to Tate was telling. It's been three years since Jones played in the NRL. Anytime between 1995 and 2005 he would have scampered on to score that try himself.

On Sunday, with the Eagles cover coming predominantly from the right, Jones cut to their left side where Tate was one-on-one, always a good bet.

Another player might have been run down with the ball. Jones' footballing nous ensured the movement was carried on to completion.

At age 32, the star number seven admits he's lost some pace. He was knackered after the Manly game.

But Sunday showed what many had hoped; namely that with the talent now around him at the Warriors he no longer has to be the only one taking on the line all the time. He can be a visionary, looking plays ahead, predicting the opposition's moves and sending the attack in the direction it will have most impact.

His short field-kicking game is as accurate as ever. And just by being there he instils some confidence in the younger players coming through, just as Ruben Wiki used to.

Jones' new role may well be as the impact player. His injection at halfback allows Nathan Fien to shift to hooker to relieve Ian Henderson in the demanding dummy-half role.

It is the little men that have made the big impact in the first two rounds of the NRL, making inroads against tiring forwards because the two-referee system has increased the speed of the play-the-ball and thus raised the tackle count, while decreased use of video review has cut the "rest" time.

Yet, the tacklers are bigger and faster.

Perhaps an ageing star, capable of turning games late from defeat to victory, should be brought on fresh against waning opponents, not thrown into the brutal opening stanza that marks all league games.