Across the One New Zealand Warriors’ 30 seasons and 730 games, their initials have dominated the landscape, linking them with the club in perpetuity.
No other player among the 289 who have worn the jersey has the same initials, nor can any of them match what they brought individually and collectively to the club.
But on Sunday, far away from home in Las Vegas, the Warriors step into a brave new world, one where they will no longer rely on a halfback known universally and simply as SJ.
Luke Metcalf takes possession of the most celebrated jersey number in the Warriors’ history when the club launches the 2025 NRL season against Canberra at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
As the Warriors enter their 31st season just over a week short of the 30th anniversary of their first game on March 10, 1995, it serves as a time to pause to reflect on what came before.
Almost poignantly the SJ age was one which started in game #7 for the Warriors when an 18-year-old Stacey Jones – two days short of his 19th birthday – made his first-grade debut against Parramatta on May 5, 1995; and it officially ended in game #730 (seven strikes again) some 10,711 days – or 29 years, 3 months and 26 days – later when a 33-year-old Shaun Johnson played his 226th and final game for the club against Cronulla Sutherland on August 31, 2024.
There were two intervals when the Warriors had to learn to operate without them at different stages of their playing careers, Jones having two seasons with Les Catalans in the Super League in 2006 and 2007 then ostensibly retiring only to be wooed back to have a farewell NRL campaign in 2009.
And Johnson also had a break away for three seasons with Cronulla Sutherland in 2019, 2020 and 2021 before returning home for three more years with his beloved club in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
From one SJ’s start to the other SJ’s finish they appeared in a remarkable 487 of a possible 724 games (67 per cent). As the club’s two top points scorers they amassed a total of 1887 points between them including a combined 156 tries (79 for Johnson, 77 for Jones). Only Manu Vatuvei with his club record 152 tries tops their individual try tallies.
In all the SJs appeared at NRL level in 23 of the club’s 30 seasons. While their first-grade careers didn’t overlap, Jones’ last season coincided with Johnson tearing it up in the old NYC under-20 competition in 2009 and then doing so again in 2010 before graduating to the NRL the following year.
In his 12 NRL seasons, Jones played 261 of a possible 282 games while Johnson appeared in 226 of a possible 260 games.
Their careers had some other parallels; they featured in the club's only two grand finals (Jones in 2002, Johnson in 2011) and also played in three finals series each (Jones in 2011, 2002 and 2003; Johnson in 2011, 2018 and 2023).
Now time is up for the twin SJ influence on the playing field. Enter the next generation.
