Mutu Stone deserves a grand final appearance

Press, 12 September 1981, Page 20

Mutu Stone deserves a grand final appearance

Addington. the oldest rugby league club in Canterbury. has provided the code with some of its finest players. But very few, if any, have given such outstanding service as Mutu Stone, who is to have his last premier game in the championship grand final at the Showgrounds next Sunday. Stone’s loyalty to the club that he joined as a third grade member in 1968 has been steadfast, especially so in an era which has been notable for the number of inter-club transfers and switches of allegiance. The basic statistics are impressive. Stone is in his thirteenth season with Addington’s first XIII, he achieved Canterbury and South Island honours, and he has scored 92 tries for his club and another eight for his province.

But they are not complete. Since 1969 Stone must have appeared in more than 200 premier matches in the black-and-white jersey with the Magpie emblem, during which he has probably made in excess of 5000 tackles towards Addington’s cause. Outstanding defence has been the hallmark of Stone’s

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career, but that impressive try-scoring total is irrefutable evidence that he has earned recognition as a loose forward of exceptional allround quality. “I guess the biggest feature of my game has been my tackling.. If I had had more players to run off in the lower grades it might have been different. Instead, my defensive style just developed and I enjoy doing it,” Stone said. A modest character who prefers to express himself with deeds on the football field rather than words off it, Stone was adamant on one subject. To have a hand in Addington’s first championship triumph since 1944 would be a .perfect climax to his career and would surpass any previous highlights. ‘That would do me just fine,” Stone said.

Now 30 years of age, Stone is the sole survivor of the last Addington side to reach a grand final, only to be decisively beaten by Papanui in 1971. His has been a long wait.

In the decade which has

JOHN COFFEY

followed, Addington has known fluctuating fortunes. Undoubtedly the most consistent feature of its play has been the exhausting workrate of the fellow in the No. 13 jersey — in spite of the fact that at 1.71 m and 80kg he has conceded size to many of the backs.

Although an ideal example to any aspiring young loose forward, Stone has displayed versatility when Addington has required variations to its combination. Indeed, some of Stone's performances at stand-off half must have given Canterbury selection panels cause for deep thinking.

But Stone was unfortunate that he was a contemporary of the former Kiwi loose forward. Rod Walker, and that neither would have been suited to positioning in the second-row. "I have no regrets that Rod was around at the same time," Stone said. “I always considered him to be a really good player, and I learned a lot from playing against him.” That Stone could have been of immense value to his province was proved in the mid-1970s when Walker stepped down to concentrate on coaching and captaining Papanui. Stone, having had his firstclass debut the previous season, appeared in all nine matches for Canterbury in 1975. Not only did he frequently top the tackle counts, but he was the leading tryscorer in a squad which contained such penetrative footballers as Mocky Brere-

ton, Francis Lawrence, Bruce Dickison, Graeme Cooksley, Lewis Hudson and Mark Broadhurst. He was a regular choice the next winter, too, but then Walker returned and. having been a reserve for the Amco Cup fixture at Brisbane, Stone made his final provincial A appearance against West Coast as a replacement in 1977. However, he cheerfully assisted the Canterbury B team two years later and then ended his first-class career on an auspicious note by leading Rest of South Island to victory over Canterbury in 1979. Stone has fond memories of two other representative matches, and rates South Island’s 18-17 upset of a formidable Sydney Metropolitan side in 1976 just ahead of Canterbury’s only win at Auckland's expense on Carlaw Park to clinch the

1975 national interprovincial championship. With justification. Stone was disappointed with the shabby treatment meted out to southern players by New Zealand Maoris selectors. He was one of several Canterbury contenders who were added, as an after-thought, to " the trialists for the 1975 Pacific Cup tournament. “I think that I performed well enough. But we had- . been late inclusions and . i never had much chance,” he said. But all that has gone before — the high points and J the lows, the 200-odd earlier • club games — will count for nothing eight days hence. No ur matter what the result of the rT grand final, the Addington '1 club might feel that Stone.g-: deserves to be with the last No. 13 jersey *u p that he pulls on, battered as « it might be after a final 80 li minutes of whole-hearted tackling.