\u201cI\u2019m on my toes with the pack we\u2019ve got and everyone is fighting for positions \u2013 we all want to be playing first-grade, we all want to be in that 17, and it\u2019s a good healthy headache to have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaufusi is joined by Stone in facing an uphill battle to feature extensively in 2026.<\/p>\n
While he appeared in the NRL just 31 times from his debut in 2018 for Parramatta until joining the Dolphins in 2023, Stone has since featured in 61 of a possible 72 games \u2013 22 of which were last year.<\/p>\n
Such was the Dolphins\u2019 injury crisis, Stone revealed he spent much of the season playing with two busted shoulders \u2013 going into battle despite damage to both AC joints in the early rounds, before undergoing surgery in the off season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were both busted, so I pretty much just needled them before every game \u2026 and if I needed a needle at halftime I would do that just to get through. The needles were the only thing I could really do to get through the game,\u201d Stone said.<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce the needle was in it was pretty much sweet until it wore off \u2013 it was probably my favourite time of the week getting them. I barely trained, I just ran and didn\u2019t do much contact throughout the week, it was pretty much just trying to maintain my body to get to game day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, Stone faces the prospect of biding his time in the Queensland Cup, as he fights for his future beyond the end of his 2026 deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is home for me. I\u2019m not really thinking outside of this club or anything like that,\u201d Stone said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m literally just thinking of next week. I don\u2019t really think long-term too much, I just worry about what\u2019s going on at the moment. I love it here, I love the club and the people so it\u2019s definitely where I see myself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I miss out, I miss out \u2013 that\u2019s part of it. The way the boys have come back and everyone\u2019s been training, I\u2019m not going to be offended by it, I\u2019m not going to be upset about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m on my toes with the pack we\u2019ve got and everyone is fighting for positions \u2013 we all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-445341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}