Rick Stone (born 14 February 1967) is a professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

football coach and former player. He has coached the

Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. They compete in Australasia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, th ...

in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

, the

Huddersfield Giants Huddersfield Giants are an English professional rugby league club from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, the birthplace of rugby league, who play in the Super League competition. They play their home games at the John Smiths Stadium which is sh ...

in the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

, the

Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby league, Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won ...

in the

NRL Women's Premiership The Telstra NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW) is Australia's national rugby league competition for women's rugby league in Australia, female players. The first season of the league began in September 2018 with four teams. The league is run by the ...

, and the Fijian and Lebanese national teams.

Playing career

Stone played for the

South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a professional Australian rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen pla ...

, appearing in a handful of first-grade games in the

1989 Winfield Cup The 1989 NSWRL season was the 82nd season of professional rugby league football in Australia. Sixteen clubs competed for the New South Wales Rugby League's J.J. Giltinan Shield and Winfield Cup Premiership during the season, which culminated in ...

premiership. Stone played for and later captain coached the Nambucca Heads Roosters in the

Group 2 Rugby League Group 2 is a rugby league competition on the north coast of New South Wales Since 1966, run under the auspices of the Country Rugby League. The Group 2 area runs from Grafton in the north to Macksville in the south. Group 2 teams played for man ...

winning two premierships in 1992 and 1993.

Coaching career

In 1994, Stone later joined

Queensland Cup The Queensland Cup, currently known as the Hostplus Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level regional rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It is run by the Queensland Rugby League (QRL) and is contested by four ...

side Burleigh whom he coached for 13 seasons, winning three premierships during that time. He coached the club to a 6–10 loss against Great Britain in a warm-up match for the

1999 Tri-nations series The 1999 Rugby League Tri-Nations series was contested by Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand in 1999. It was the first multi-national rugby league tournament to feature the sport's three world powers since the 1989–92 World Cup (the 19 ...

Newcastle Knights

Stone started at Newcastle as assistant coach to

Michael Hagan Michael Hagan (born 12 August 1964) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and former player. He currently works as an assistant coach under Mal Meninga for the Australian rugby league team. A Queensland State of Origin repre ...

. During the

2009 NRL season The 2009 NRL season was the 102nd season of professional rugby league football club competition in Australia, and the twelfth run by the National Rugby League. For the third consecutive year, sixteen teams competed for the 2009 Telstra Premiership ...

, Stone's fourth at the Newcastle Knights, the head coach, Brian Smith, resigned. Stone, then assistant coach to Smith, was appointed to the position of coach for the remainder of the season. He enjoyed victory in his first game as head coach of the Knights with a win against the eventual grand final winners

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm are a rugby league club based in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia that participates in the National Rugby League. The first fully professional rugby league team based in the state, the Storm entered the competition in 1998. ...

. He was named head coach of

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

in 2011. With the signing of supercoach Wayne Bennett at the Knights for the next four years starting in 2012, Stone re-signed with the Knights for another 4 years to be assistant coach to Bennett and take over after Bennett left. Stone coached

in their

2013 Rugby League World Cup The 2013 Rugby League World Cup was the fourteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup and took place in England, Wales, France and Ireland. between 26 October and 30 November 2013. It was the main event of the year's 2013 Festival of World ...

campaign. On 11 August 2014, it was announced that Stone would be taking over as coach of the Knights again on a 2-year contract starting in 2015, following Wayne Bennett's decision to move to the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite com ...

in 2015. On 18 October 2014 Stone named a 19-man Fiji team for the Inaugural Hayne/Mannah Cup

test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

against

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

. This match would be Stone's last match as Fiji coach, due to him becoming head coach at the Newcastle Knights again. He was fired as Newcastle's head coach in July 2015.

Huddersfield Giants

In July 2016, Stone was named as the new head coach of Super League club

. After a poor start to the 2018 Super League Season, Stone left his position as Coach.

Return to Burleigh

On 8 November 2019, it was announced that Stone had signed a two-year contract with Queensland Cup side

Burleigh Bears The Burleigh Bears are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Gold Coast, Australia. They compete in Queensland's top rugby league competition, the Queensland Cup. Since their admission to the competition in 1997, the ...

, starting 2020, thus marking his return to the club where he had coached between 1995 and 2005, winning two premierships.

References

External links

Huddersfield Giants profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Rick 1967 births Living people Australian expatriate sportspeople in England Australian expatriate sportspeople in Fiji Australian rugby league coaches Australian rugby league players Burleigh Bears coaches Fiji national rugby league team coaches Huddersfield Giants coaches Lakes United Seagulls players Lebanon national rugby league team coaches Newcastle Knights coaches Rugby league players from Newcastle, New South Wales Place of birth missing (living people) South Sydney Rabbitohs players