League: Price tallies up the numbers

Steve Price is enjoying life in Auckland. Photo / Greg Bowker

Steve Price will become just the 11th player to rack up 300 first-grade games next weekend. Michael Brown talks to him about some other numbers from his illustrious career.

1: Steve Price can't remember his debut. It came in round 14 of the 1994 season against Balmain. Instead, his first recollection is from a game a fortnight later in a 26-10 defeat of Manly.

"We were winning pretty easily and I got a run," he says.

"Ian Roberts belted me and I got up, half rattled, to play the ball. He gave me a bit of push and said something but before I knew what was happening, Dean Pay came in, sized him up and said, 'leave him alone'. I felt bulletproof."

* * *

155: Price took over from Darren Britt as Bulldogs captain in 2002 for his 155th game. It was something he cherished but he had no idea of the drama that was to unfold on his watch.

Later in the season, the Bulldogs were docked 37 competition points for a major breach of the salary cap.

Two years later, the club were again put through the wringer when they were the subject of a police investigation for an alleged gang rape. Price was the public face of the Bulldogs and didn't shirk his duties.

He was named Dally M Captain of the Year in 2002.

"People say 'I can't believe what you had to go through as captain of the Bulldogs' but I believe things happen for a reason. At the time it was gut-wrenching. It killed me. But I am the person I am today because of it. I am so much stronger mentally than I ever was.

* * *

2: It's something that still makes Price cringe. He became the talk of the NRL in 1998 when he became the second player behind Ian Roberts to pose nude in renowned gay magazine Blue.

Price thought he would never look as good as he did then and wanted to have some photos taken to record it. He was even open to them being published in a
sports magazine.

Price, though, was the victim of a set-up.

The photographer said he couldn't get him in Not Only Sport but that
Blue, a magazine he told Price was quite similar, were keen. Price hadn't
heard of the magazine but agreed.

Rumours soon swept the rugby league community that Price, who was pictured wearing, among other things, a dog collar, was going to leave his wife and move in with his gay lover.

"I was young and didn't see it
coming," he says.

"I was a sucker. At the time, I wasn't embarrassed because I didn't have autonomy over the pictures selected. I was more disappointed I put so much pressure and stress on my family. I have done some silly things in my time and that's up there."

* * *

4515: In 2007, at the age of 33, Price ran for 4515m in the season. Manly's Anthony Watmough was next best more than 750m behind (3761m)
but played three games more. Price averaged a staggering 196.3m a game and twice broke his own record for the most metres gained by a forward in a match (306m, 323m).

"It's my most consistent season. I'm not always about stats but I look at them to see how much involvement I have. To do that in one season was pretty special. I was disappointed that my last game was my worst and that was when I
needed to step up and I didn't."

* * *

222: Price played 222 games for his beloved Bulldogs. He will forever wish he had played 223, however.

Price tore a medial ligament in the second minute of their grand final qualifier against Penrith in 2004 and was forced to sit out the Doggies' 16-13 grand final win over the Roosters.

"It hurts even more the older I get,' he laments. 'All I have wanted to do since I was first appointed captain was be a premiership-winning captain. I was as close as you can get. I was a premiership-winning club captain but I didn't captain the team that day and it really hurts."

* * *

300: Price joins a distinguished list next weekend. Terry Lamb and Steve Menzies head the roll of honour (both 349 games) followed by Brad Fittler (336), Cliff Lyons (332), Andrew Ettingshausen (328), Geoff Gerard (320), Jason Croker (318), Paul Langmack (315), Luke Ricketson (301) and his former Warriors
team-mate Ruben Wiki (312).

"I'm proud and honoured to be part of a unique club," Price says.

"Only 10 players have done it before me, after 100 years of the game. The thing that is most special is that people have constantly doubted me throughout my whole career, about whether I was tough enough or had the skill.'

* * *

77: After 77 games for the Warriors, Price is regarded as an honorary
Kiwi. It hasn't always been plain sailing, however. In his first season, he often wondered if leaving the Bulldogs had been a mistake.

The Warriors won just 10 games, some of his team-mates disagreed with coach Tony Kemp's tactics and he began to understand what a tangled web chief executive Mick Watson had weaved.

It wasn't much better in 2006 when the Warriors were docked four points for their own salary cap scandal.

"I couldn't believe it. A second time. And then for the NRL to say they were thinking of deregistering me, that really broke my heart. To think they thought that after everything I went through at the Bulldogs I would try to rort the cap. Me and Rubes (Wiki) were blamed for it because we were the highest profile players and last signed. That's fine. I'm a big boy.

"The thing I'm most proud of is the way people have accepted me and my family. It will probably be the biggest memory I have, whether we stay here for our whole lives or another 12 months."

34: At 34, Price is one of the granddaddies of the NRL. He turns 35 on Thursday and knows the 'real' world awaits sooner rather than later.

"I'm really enjoying footy at the moment but I'm mindful of finishing on a
good note. I don't want to end on a worn-out, tired, busted-arse note. But I don't want to finish and think I could have done one more[season]. I want to be a part of what we have worked hard to achieve. I'm hoping it's this year. I don't want to miss out because that would be twice in a row [after leaving the
Bulldogs].

"The thing I am very confident about is post-footy. It will most probably be here [in Auckland]. It would have to be something big to uproot the family. I would like to do some media, as well as being involved with corporates in an
ambassadorial role to begin with."