New Zealand Warriors captain Steve Price has 300 reasons and four years of heartache as extra motivation for Saturday's NRL preliminary final against Manly.

The Test and Queensland prop will play his 299th NRL game on Saturday night at the Sydney Football Stadium, where victory will ensure he gets to play his milestone 300th match in next week's grand final.

In doing so Price would become the 11th player in 100 years of league history to reach the milestone.

Furthermore, victory would give Price a chance to erase part of the pain of missing the Bulldogs' 2004 premiership win with a knee injury.

The then Bulldogs skipper had to sit on the sidelines with torn medial ligaments as his teammates claimed premiership glory but four years later he insists the heartache of missing the decider is not weighing on his mind.

"You can never go back and get that game. So just because you play a game this year, or in 10 years' time, or whatever it is, it doesn't make too much of a difference," said Price.

"You look for every opportunity. That is why we train hard and play hard, to try and get to that day. I am no different this year just because I missed out in 2004."

A crowd of 32,611 attended Manly's preliminary final win over North Queensland at the SFS last year but, with a strong Kiwi presence in Sydney, officials expect that figure to be eclipsed on Saturday.

Price believes the Warriors, with a handful of Australians in their side, will be well supported this weekend.

"Hopefully there will be plenty of New Zealand Warriors supporters. They don't necessarily have to be Kiwis. But certainly hopefully there will be a lot of New Zealand Warriors supporters," he said.

"We have had great support in Australia and it really excites the boys to be able to go over to Australia and get so much support."

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