Education
Stanley attended Belmore South Public School in Belmore and Endeavour Sports High School in Caringbah.
Stanley attended Belmore South Public School in Belmore and Endeavour Sports High School in Caringbah.
His position of choice is centre, he can also operate on the wing. In 2005 he was contracted to the Street George Illawarra Dragons as a junior and continued to play there in the 2nd tier competitions till he debuted on the NRL in 2007. He played 41 games for the Dragons between 2007 and 2009.
Stanley signed a two-year deal with the Melbourne Storm starting in the 2010 NRL season.
He made his Storm debut on 30 May 2010. At the end of the 2013 season Stanley signed a 2-year deal with the Canterbury Bulldogs starting in 2014 NRL season.
Stanley made his international rugby league debut for the New Zealand Kiwis in their third Test against the Great Britain national rugby league team in November, 2007. Although the Kiwis lost to Great Britain, Stanley had a personally successful debut, scoring two tries.
Stanley is eligible to represent Samoa, and was named in the Samoa training squad for the 2008 Rugby League World Cup as well as the New Zealand training squad, but missed out on final selection for both.
He did, however, represent the New Zealand Māori in the curtain-raiser to the Australia v New Zealand World Cup match, kicking one goal and scoring a long-range intercept try. Stanley is one of the famous increasing "Stanley" Rugby Clan - which include:
Jeremy (All Black 1997, Auckland)
Benson (All Black 2010) (Auckland Blues Super 14 2008, Clermont Ferrand)
Martin (Auckland)
Ben (Bedford Blues Academy 2004-2006)
Michael (Saracens & England U16"s 2006, U18"s 2007, U20"s 2007/8, 2008/09), Samoa RWC2015
Sam (Saracens & England U16"s 2008, England U18"s American Economic Review 2009, Bedford Blues, Ealing, England 7"s)
He also has two sons with his long term partner.