Price extends career to 17th season - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Price extends career to 17th season

03/05/2009 03:59:03 PM Comments (0)

New Zealand Warriors captain Steve Price on Sunday confirmed he would extend his NRL career to a 17th season after signing a one-year contract with the club.

Already the NRL's oldest player this year, Price will be 36 at the start of the 2010 season.

He lined up for his 305th first-grade appearance in Sunday's match against St George Illawarra in Wollongong.

"I'm really enjoying my football and can't see any reason to consider finishing just yet," Price said in a club statement.

"This is my fifth season with the Warriors and I can't say enough about how happy I have been here.

"I believe we've been building really well as a club and I think we're in a good space now. That had a lot to do with my desire to keep playing.

"I appreciate the chance to be able to sign for another season in 2010."

Warriors coach Ivan Cleary said Price's ability high levels of performance after so many years in the game was exceptional.

"It's phenomenal how Pricey keeps producing the quality of performances he does," Cleary said.

"He sets the standard for all front rowers to aspire to and especially our own.

"It's certainly encouraging for us to see the number of young props who have come through our system in the last few years. They've done so being able to learn from two of the best you'll see in Price and Ruben (Wiki)."

The Dalby-born Toowoomba product began his first-grade career with the Bulldogs in 1994, becoming the club's captain in 2002 and going on to play 222 times at NRL level before signing a three-year contract with the Warriors.

Statistics to the end of round seven showed he was the competition's second best player in terms of average metres (167.4 per game) and runs (19.2 per game) with only Newcastle fullback Kurt Gidley ahead of him on both charts (167.9 and 20.6).

Price's re-signing comes in a week when he was named in an initial Queensland squad for this year's State of Origin series.

He is poised to own the record outright for the most Origin appearances by a forward, having made 25 so far to share the record with his Queensland childhood idol Bob Lindner.

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