Quote roopy="roopy"I've watched his coaching for several years in firstgrade and the lower grades at the Knights.
He started his career at the Knights as an assistant coach to Michael Hagan, after having a very good year of coaching in the Queensland cup.
When Hagan moved on, Stone stayed as an assistant to Brian Smith and worked with Trent Robinson and Tony Smith as assistants to Brian.
He was then given the job as head coach and employed Craig Sandercock as his assistant.
In his two years as head coach he had very limited resources and a small payroll to play with, but managed to put together a competitive side, who made the first round of finals.
When the club was bought by a billionaire, the first thing he did was pay 1.4 million dollars to buy the best coach he could in Bennett, and Stone was given a payrise to stay on as assistant, but Bennett brought in his own guys and gave Stone the reserve grade side.
Stone took the reserve grade side to a grandfinal loss after they had come second last the year before.
When Bennett left, Stone was handed a poison chalice because players like Beau Scott, Joey Leilui, Darius Boyd and several others had signed to play under Bennett, and basically dogged it under Stone, and ruined his career in the process. He was replaced because he had lost the player group, but I don't think anyone would have done any different.
In his years at the Knights he had some very ordinary squads in both firsts and reserves, and I believe he over achieved for the squads he had in every year except his last, and that was beyond his control.
As a coach, he takes a very steady approach. He works out the strengths of the players he has, settles on his best line up, and works on game plans to make the best of what he has available.
His teams tend to start the year slowly and improve steadily over the season as they learn to play together and as he makes gradual changes to make the team work better.
He doesn't make impulsive changes. He makes a plan at the start of the season and works to get the team playing the best football they are capable of.
I've seen his teams play several different styles. The firstgrade side who made the finals tended to throw the ball around and score a lot of tries in the outside backs, especially wingers Uate and Vuna. The reserve grade side he took to a grandfinal had a massive and dominant forward pack who basically bashed their way to the decider. He develops the game plan based on the players he has.'"
Firstly Cheers Crackers for putting me straight
, secondly Thanks Roopy for a great insight into a coach we don't really know much about, as a club we needed a change and someone to come in who didn't know the players to assess what they offer us, quite a few have gone stale and would benefit both player and club with a change of scenery. Like the sound of Mr Stone with what you have said and he has identified issues as soon as he got here that alot of fans could see and alot of other fans didnt want to admit and would have not changed a thing this season.
, secondly Thanks Roopy for a great insight into a coach we don't really know much about, as a club we needed a change and someone to come in who didn't know the players to assess what they offer us, quite a few have gone stale and would benefit both player and club with a change of scenery. Like the sound of Mr Stone with what you have said and he has identified issues as soon as he got here that alot of fans could see and alot of other fans didnt want to admit and would have not changed a thing this season. 
