Parramatta Eels legend Ray price on salary cap woes, why Tests don’t matter and the end of loyalty
May 7, 2016 4:20pm
Robert CraddockThe Sunday Mail (Qld)
THE day Ray Price walked off the Sydney Cricket Ground after winning the 1986 premiership, Parramatta slipped into a hole from which they have never recovered.
After playing eight rugby union Tests for Australia, Price was part of a dynamic Parramatta team that won four premierships.
The last was Price’s final game.
The man called Mr Perpetual Motion does stop occasionally these days, for passengers on the buses he drives around the Gold Coast.
Today he speaks about his former’ clubs’ salary cap woes, long lost club loyalty, controversial referees and why Jack Gibson would not pick players who did not have a job.
When did you play your last game of football?
Six years ago.
Seriously, at age 57?
Yes, for the Rugby Legends. It is over-35 and it was easy. All you had to do was get fit. My only thing was that I wanted to take my wife with me and if she did not go neither would I, so we saw a lot of the world.
You were renowned as a ferocious competitor. What drove you?
I hated losing anything. Even playing in the Rugby Legends in Perth years ago a few of our guys were not fit and were into the piss two days out from the game. One of them drank nine bottles of champagne. They were not ready, we got beat and I pulled them up and said “I have not come over here to waste my time. I have come here to win’’.
How did you find those early Origin games against Queensland?
You always fired up against Queensland because they had a ref who did not know how to f---ing ref.
Ray, please tell me you are not speaking ill of the great Barry Gomersall?
I had a conversation with him before he died and he agreed with me that he did not know the rules. And he didn’t. He was hopeless. He thought he had to help Queensland get home. But NSW never took Origin as seriously as they should have for five years and by that time Queensland were away.
What’s it like driving buses on the Coast?
I enjoy it. You meet a lot of nice people. Every now and then that arsehole comes along but you can’t have a perfect life.
Do people recognise you?
A lot of people get on and call me Ray and ask me about football. It’s good.
How about living on the Coast after all those years in Sydney?
I can live anywhere. It’s beautiful here. I live in NSW (Tweed Heads). I cannot live in Queensland. I lived there for a year and I just, I don’t know ... But for some reason even though I live in NSW I have a Queensland phone number.
What is your reaction to the Parramatta salary cap scandal?
I’m disappointed. I don’t see the point in cheating. Cheats get caught. Why did they have to go so far over? If a player didn’t want to come with the initial offer, bad luck. You could do worse than pay everyone the same amount.
Can Parra recover?
I still think they can win the competition this year. I believe in them. It is the best I have seen them play for 15 years. But the board must go now.
When you played Tests they were bigger than Texas. What’s gone wrong?
I think the money has made a difference. I know people will say that sounds like sour grapes but I did not play the game for the money. It was the furthest thing from my mind.
Mick Cronin and Price with Peter Sterling and Brett Kenny after the 1986 grand final.
So money has replaced loyalty?
There is no loyalty to the club or to your mate. Sometimes you have to test it. When I was at Parra, Manly tried to buy Brett Kenny, Peter Sterling and Steve Ella. I went to each of them by themselves and said “Manly are offering you more but you don’t know if you are going to make it in that team. And we play you twice a year and if you go I will belt the shit out of you’’.
Who was the better player, Wally Lewis or Brett Kenny?
Kenny by far. The only difference between them was that Brett has never had a kicking game because he has never needed it. His speed is like that. Snap your fingers and he’s gone.
You never really got along with Wally did you?
Rephrase that. He never got along with me. When I started calling in 1986 I went to visit Sterlo and Kenny and I walked into the Test room and Wally walked out. I don’t think he liked me suggesting he was not fit and could have trained harder, but that’s me. I call a spade a spade.
What about your great Parra coach Jack Gibson. Any special memories?
He did not talk to me for a year. I wrote a book where I said he and Ron Massey were the best coaching pair and I gave them accolades. But because I mentioned Massey so much Jack said to me “did I do anything for your ----ing career?’’
Did you sort it out before he died?
I eventually saw him and said “listen you cranky old bastard I don’t give a stuff what you think I thought you were one of the best’’. From then on we were really close. Sometimes it does not pay to hold it back. He was a good bloke.
Tell me something quirky about Jack.
He would never pick anyone who did not have an outside job because he reckoned their minds would not be where they should be. I am a builder. I never did weights because I lifted things at work. It was much harder than going to the gym.
Since you and few others retired, Parra have been dreadful for 30 years. Why?
They should have been better. Parra should have easily won five comps in that time. It’s not because of lack of staff or playing capability. They haven’t tackled. This side has done one thing different to sides of the past decade, they are tackling and hurting people. They belt people who run at them.
Who did you consider the best player you played with?
Sterling. He had everything. He was not the fastest halfback but take him out of the side and that side is floundering.
You played in a rugged era. Who was the toughest of the lot?
Terry Randall, Igor, from Manly was the hardest bastard in rugby league. He got me good one time. He could bloody tackle. He put one into me and drove me over the sideline and knocked the wind out of me. I never showed him I was hurt but I packed into the scrum and I could not even push.
