Stacey Jones won't ask the Warriors for a new contract but is prepared to listen if the club wants him to extend his comeback into 2010. Jones, who starts at halfback against the Cowboys today and has appeared in all but one game this season, told the
Sunday Star-Times: "I've not spoken to anyone yet. I'm not going to go to the club and say I want to sign for another year.
"If they want me to sign, I will think about it, but at the moment it's about getting through it week to week. I'm not looking beyond even two weeks away."
It's a remarkable admission from Jones, now 33, with his comeback (after 18 months in retirement), originally being described as a one-season return.
After landing a field goal to beat the Roosters, seeing one attempt shave the wrong side of the upright in Melbourne where the Warriors drew, and then dopping the ball when he lined up winning one-pointers against both the Storm and the Dragons, Jones' hope is that the Warriors can finally win a game convincingly today.
"Then I won't have to worry about taking drop kicks," he said.
"I know a lot of people say it is easy to land a drop goal in front of the posts. It's easy at training, God, it's easy, but you get 13 guys who know what you are going to do and come rushing at you, it's pretty hard." Jones claims his golden-point dropped ball against Melbourne wasn't a knock-on, and agreed St George forward Ben Creagh was offside when he rushed him to force another spillage in the Dragons game, but he isn't complaining.
Instead, he wants to try to forge a partnership with converted standoff Nathan Fien in the halves.
"We certainly want to try to make things work," says Jones. "With two guys used to playing half, you're always chasing the ball so it is a matter of really communicating. That's the key."
WARRIORS WING Denan Kemp has revealed that he has been playing with pain-killing injections since round two, and vomited several times on the field when they played in Melbourne.
Kemp told the Star-Times he had been playing with a painful shoulder injury, suffered against Manly in round two and aggravated against Brisbane a week later, and then facial cuts became infected and kept him bedridden and on strong antibiotics before the Storm game. He threw up during that game, not through contact, but from his illness.
"I've been taking some pretty tough measures to get on the field. I've had needles, I've had needles for a while now," he said.
Kemp, recalled to face the Cowboys today after being omitted against the Dragons a fortnight ago, said it was "wait and see" whether he would again have an injection, but suspected he wouldn't need one.
Yet to score a try in seven appearances this season despite landing 19 in 24 outings for Brisbane last year, Kemp says that if it's best for his team, he's willing to go through the year scoreless and submit to the traditional non-scorer's nude lap of Mt Smart.
"I'll probably be the fastest nude runner ever," he says. "If we're winning, it doesn't matter. If I score zero tries and we win the grand final, that's fine."
Kemp had the luxury of playing outside Kangaroos centre Justin Hodges last year, but he's had few openings this season, with the Warriors targeting Manu Vatuvei's right wing.
"Some of the tries I scored last year were just falling over the line anyone could have scored them so maybe I got a few more than I should have," he says. "I'd be getting down on myself if there were opportunities and I had messed them up. The worst thing is that now I am under a lot of pressure if I do get that one chance and we don't score."
But the only pressure he really feels is from the social media. One columnist has declared Kemp and girlfriend Hayley Mundy to be Auckland's own David and Victoria Beckham. "We like that kind of [social] stuff but we don't really like the `Posh and Becks' stuff," he says
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/2418049/Stacey-won-t-ask-for-new-contract
