League: Warriors await word on Price's knee

Captain Steve Price is expected to play on Saturday night. File Picture / Nigel Marple

The Warriors hope their skipper, Steve Price, gets the knee specialist's okay today to allow him to play against the Raiders at Ericsson Stadium on Saturday night.

He was not named in the team yesterday, but everyone believes he will play, most of all Price himself.

Meanwhile the Raiders' captain, Simon Woolford, continues to fight at the judiciary. The Raiders expect to hear today whether Woolford will be given leave to appeal against a sentence that effectively ended his season, barring any finals games.

Price has not played since the end of May, when he tore the medial ligament in his right knee in the 21-4 victory against Wests Tigers.

It was the second such injury he had suffered in eight months, the first to his left knee. Price showed how quick a healer he was and how little preparation he needed to hit top gear when he started the season in great form despite a shortened preparation.

It has been a testing time for Price. He missed the grand final with the Bulldogs at the end of last season, starred for the Warriors and in State of Origin One, then was sidelined again and missed two Origin games and eight for the club as the team struggled to make the playoffs.

The Warriors' record with Price is six losses and four wins; without him they have gone four-and-four. Yet the value of his input is incalculable and, had he been playing all season, there is little doubt they would be featuring higher up the competition table than 12th.

Iafeta Paleaaesina has been elevated to the run-on side against the Raiders and Richard Villasanti is demoted to the bench, but the Warriors are otherwise unchanged.

The Raiders have a similar adjustment, dropping former Kiwi Tyran Smith to the bench and elevating Matt Adamson, but otherwise fielding the same team who won last weekend.

The Warriors need three wins in a row if they are to stay in contention for the finals series. They have a good chance against the Raiders, who are without their leader and ball distributor.

Woolford was charged with a grade-two dangerous throw, which normally carries a three-match ban. But he has six previous offences, and the loading that comes into play put him out for eight weeks, a penalty the club sought leave to appeal.

The NRL will announce today whether that can happen or not. Regardless, it has already determined that there will be an end-of-season review of the system and how penalties accumulate.

The Raiders have all but completed their signings for 2006, securing the existing team and adding three Australian schoolboy reps, Tom Leahroy-Lars from Brisbane, Trevor Thurling from the Bulldogs and Dane Tilse from Newcastle.

* The rivalry for Storm halfback Matt Orford's services next season and beyond continues between the Storm, the Sea Eagles and Souths.

The two Sydney clubs have varied their offers to allow him an out if a Central Coast club is allowed in at Gosford where he was a junior, though that now seems unlikely before 2012, unless a Sydney club moves north.

Manly offered A$425,000 ($472,000) over four years. The Souths' offer is said to be A$40,000 more, and the Storm similar.

The Melbourne club denied getting News Ltd boss Lachlan Murdoch to pull strings to keep him in the south.

* The Gold Coast franchise has confirmed it will play one season at the old, cramped and unfortunately situated Cararra Stadium while a new 25,000-seat base is built for them at Robina.

* Ericsson Stadium, 7.30pm Saturday

Warriors

Brent Webb, Todd Byrne, Clinton Toopi, Jerome Ropati, Francis Meli, Nathan Fien, Stacey Jones (c), Ruben Wiki, Lance Hohaia, Iafeta Paleaaesina, Sione Faumuina, Wairangi Koopu, Monty Betham

Raiders

C Schifcofske, Phil Graham, David Howell, Adam Mogg, Craig Frawley, Jason Smith, Todd Carney, Josh Miller, Lincoln Withers, Troy Thompson, Matt Adamson, Ian Hindmarsh, Jason Croker (c)

Interchange:

Warriors: Karl Temata, Richard Villasanti, Awen Guttenbeil, Simon Mannering.

Raiders: Alan Tongue, Michael Hodgson, Tyran Smith, Ben Cross, Matt Gafa, Michael Robertson (two to be omitted).