Steve Deane: What Price has paid for NZ success

Steve Price. Photo / Brett Phibbs

It's no surprise Steve Price wants to finish strong at the Warriors - his legacy at the club depends on it.

There are two widely disparate views of Price.

The most often touted is the legend who defied the odds to play 17 (well, 16 so far) seasons of NRL without ever dropping his marvellous standards; the gentleman prop; the clean-cut face of a game.

Then there is the view of Price that tends to excite talkback radio callers: the captain deposed because he was allegedly unpopular with his teammates; the publicity-hungry self-promoter obsessed with building the Price brand; the highly paid player who was "coincidentally" - inverted commas that drip acid - twice on the books of clubs caught rorting the salary cap.

The first of those opinions is based on Price's deeds, on what he has done and said, how he has carried himself in public.The second is based on little more than shadowy conjecture. Still, it most certainly exists.

Price may not be universally loved, but that hardly means he is widely disliked. That said, there are seemingly enough nay-sayers to suggest Price - a man oft regarded as New Zealand's favourite Aussie - needs to finish his time at the Warriors with an emphatic statement of his value.

Leaving aside a popularity debate of debatable dubious merit, there are enough footballing reasons to argue Price's real value has yet to be determined.

The most high-profile signing since the foundation season of 1995, Price joined a Warriors club that had just endured its worst season, winning just six games to finish 14th out of 15 teams in 2004.

In his first season the club improved modestly to finish 11th. The following year another modest improvement was undermined by a four-point deduction for salary cap breaches. Unfortunately for Price, his salary was at the centre of those breaches.

In 2007 the club broke through to finish fourth but blew up in the playoffs, while in 2008 it surged home to scrape into the eight and then came within a game of making the grand final.

If that level had been maintained, Price's Warriors legacy would be safe. The club's figurehead as it morphed from basket-case into contender, Price had achieved what he was brought in to do.

But last year's shocking campaign changed all that. An ageing Price was dogged by injury, the Stacey Jones experiment failed and the club tumbled back to 14th place.

A repeat of that failure this year and the Price ledger will read two pretty decent seasons out of six. If he leaves with the club back at a low ebb what, really, will he have achieved? On the other hand, if Price's heel heals and he returns to help the club into the playoffs, he'll depart having been a key figure in a revival that boasts three top-eight finishes in the past four years.

His stellar 11 years at Canterbury, his 300-plus games, his Origin series triumphs with Queensland and his victories in the Australian jumper will all ensure Price's ultimate standing among the greats of the game - in Australia.

But Price came to New Zealand with a mission to transform the Warriors into a winning club. His efforts for that cause both on and off the field have been tireless. But whether he succeeds now swings on the outcome of his final season.