Price prefers the hard yards
September 7, 2007
Warriors skipper has built his character on doing it tough, writes Jamie Pandaram.
In the midst of a deep conversation with the Herald last Sunday, Steve Price's mobile phone transmitted the result of Parramatta's slaughter of Brisbane.
With eyebrows raised, he repeats the blowout scoreline - "68-22" - then smiles and nods his head. "That's good, that's good."
Here it is: the ruthless, hurdle-seeking nature of the Warriors captain, who views shortcuts as a recipe for a short-fall. "I would rather play a team in form, that is more of a challenge," he explains.
Price, 33, hasn't received any favours during his 14-year first-grade career, nor does he want any. Quite the contrary, he has had to negotiate booby traps such as salary cap breaches at two clubs and the gang-rape allegations at the Bulldogs, and he readily admits his character has been carved from the mountains of such scandals.
"If you had told me before the salary cap scandal and rape allegations that I would have to represent the Bulldogs as the captain and face up to all of these people and answer questions, I would have said, 'No, I won't be able to handle that'.
"But had it not been for those issues, I would not be the leader I am today or the person I am today."
Ambitious and driven, Price doesn't mind slipping into marketing-speak when discussing plans for the future. He does aspire to run the NRL one day, preferring to have charge over "400 people rather than just 17 players", but he instantly dismisses the idea of coaching when he retires.
"I like the administration side of things, and I think a lot about the game and believe I can make a difference," says Price, who is completing a Masters of Business Administration. "If you want to be an administrator, you need to be conscious of the type of people you can affect with your decisions - it is duty of care.
"When I saw the pain the stakeholders of both the Bulldogs and Warriors had gone through during the salary cap breaches, I got a real appreciation of all the different people you represent as an administrator."
If he gets there, Price will be one of the few CEOs to have posed nude for a magazine shoot. There's a few feathers to the man's cap: the father-of-three who is married to his Toowoomba childhood sweetheart Jo has also played an enormous role off the field.
On a mantlepiece in Price's Auckland home sit three photographs of dead friends. One is of Jo's uncle, the second is of Bulldogs patriarch Peter "Bullfrog" Moore, with whom Price formed a close bond.
And the third photograph is of a young boy who Price met on only a handful of occasions. Matthew Mitric, an avid Canterbury supporter, lost his battle with cancer five days after Christmas, 2001. The 11-year-old was buried wearing a Bulldogs jersey and holding a Bulldogs soft toy - both gifts from Price.
Matthew's mother Kim says: "I can't speak highly enough of Steve, he was unbelievable. He meant the world to my son, they were truly great mates.
"Steve got him through some pretty tough times. There was a time when Matthew had been in intensive care for several weeks, I hadn't seen my son smile for weeks.
"I couldn't get him to smile, Matthew's father [Marty] couldn't get him to smile, his sister [Danielle] couldn't get him to smile, and he was generally responsive to all of us.
"But when Steve came to visit Matthew, the smile never left his face for hours. He felt really special."
Price remembers it well. "I spent a fair bit of time with him that day," he says. "I use him as an inspiration.
"His mother wrote me a letter after he passed away saying that they had tried the best medicines and doctors, and nothing worked liked my visits. She wrote that I gave her two more years with her son, and that just blew me away.
"We're talking about life here … sport is really nothing in the way of life. But whilst we do only play sport, rugby league is a sport that a lot of people do love, you do play such a massive role in people's lives, and that is why we get paid the money we do."
Talking of money, he is certainly earning a nice packet at the Warriors, but the club feels they have made such a sound investment that Price has been given a one-year extension and will play on next season.
With good reason. This year's Dally M captain of the year and prop of the year was also named the Warriors' player of the year on Wednesday night, retaining the honour from 2006.
He has made more yardage than any other player in the competition so far this season, 4213 metres - or 200.6m per game. He is in the form of his career yet his former club wasn't convinced he had three good years left in him.
Price reveals some of the contributing factors that led to him leaving the Bulldogs after 2004. "I wanted a three-year contract, and they only wanted to give me two. They also wanted me to quit representative footy, but I believe the selectors should be the judge of that."
Then there was the sacking of long-serving football manager Garry Hughes in the fallout from the rape allegations.
"Garry had played his whole career at the club, and then worked for the club when he finished playing. When he was sacked, for the first time that I had been at the club, I realised that this was a business just like anywhere else."
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