Steve Price vows to bring success back to Belmore in new club role
Canterbury’s new general manager of football Steve Price has opened up on his return to the Bulldogs including his plans with Dean Pay and how he’ll deal with the club’s salary cap mess.
Canterbury legend Steve Price says he has landed “his dream job” as he prepares to take charge of the Bulldogs roster and oversee the future of coach Dean Pay.
Price will step into his role as the club’s new general manager of football on Monday week, marking his official return to the Bulldogs in a full-time capacity since leaving the club at the end of 2004. He joined the Bulldogs board last year but wanted a more hands-on role with the Bulldogs.
Price described the position as “anything to do with rugby league” including the coaches across all grades, pathways, recruitment and high performance.
Live stream all the action of every round leading into the finals on KAYO SPORTS. Every game of every round live & anytime on your TV or favourite device. Get your 14 day free trial >
MORE NRL NEWS
CAMPO’S CORNER: AIDAN SEZER WON’T LET YOU GO
BULLDOGS LEGEND TO BRING BITE BACK TO BELMORE
SALARY CAP
The Bulldogs are finally coming towards the end of a salary cap mess. They have pain ahead for another season before attacking the market in 2021.
“I’m going to be a bystander to start with,’’ Price said. “I have to get to work out what we are doing, why that is, what we’ve got to do, how much we’ve got to spend, who we are looking at and why.
“We are slowly getting to that stage now where we are getting a bit more control which is a good position to be in but we aren’t completely there. The decisions over the last few years have helped us get in a better position quicker.”
PAY’S POSITION
Pay had his deal extended by just one season. Price will have a big say on Pay’s long-term future at the club.
“I’m a former teammate of Deano’s,” Price said. “I want to get to know Dean as a coach. Understand what he is doing and how all the things are working. He brought in Steve Litvensky who is doing a fantastic job as team manager. Dean’s comfortable and confident with Steve. That’s important.
“I only have a couple of games before the end of the season where I can watch and get a feel of what goes on pre-game and game day to get a better understanding of how it works.
“I won’t be in Dean’s way. That’s important. I’ve got all the trust in Deano. I’ll be trying my hardest to make sure he has every opportunity to be the best coach.
“I want it to be an open door scenario.”
LACK OF SUCCESS
Canterbury haven’t won a grand final since Price’s final season in 2004. They could finish with the wooden spoon this year and will miss the finals for the third consecutive year — their longest run without finals football in 53 years.
“Success is what Canterbury is about,” Price said. “It’s why we have had so much success because of the expectations. As a player you lived up to the expectations. That’s the challenge for the players and coaches. “We want to have success again.
“It’s not ideal where we are sitting. I know the players, the coach and everyone is working hard to be in a better position and you can see that with the effort.
“While our fans are upset are at the moment when we do get back to experience that stuff again they will appreciate how far we have come.”
LISTEN! Brett Finch and Paul Kent are back in the studio with Matty Johns to dig out some fun memories for 70’s Retro Round, offer suggestions to help the southern Queensland teams get back on track, analyse Kalyn Ponga’s mega-deal and Kenty details his Tuesday feud with Ivan Cleary.
EXCITEMENT
Price has been working towards this position since completing his Masters of Business while still playing for the Warriors. Since retiring he managed and owned a grocery store in New Zealand and has spent the past two years at Westfund Health Insurance as a commercial business develop manager before working as a leadership development and performance manager.
“This role is something I always aspired to do,” Price said. “It was certainly good to come back to the club and be on the board and get an outstanding of what the club does and the challenges. This is an extension of that. It’s more hands on and operational. One of the frustrations about being on the board was it was making decisions for people to do things.
“I’ve enjoyed being the one who gets to do it. I’m excited.”
Bulldogs begin urgent coach search after exit confirmed
Canterbury will embark on a desperate search for a new head coach four months before the start of the NRLW pre-season after confirming Blake Cavallaro has departed the club.
NRL Pre-Season Challenge: Signings, injuries, positional battles
Injuries, a signings merry-go-round and hotly contested positional battles have set up an intriguing NRL pre-season challenge. Our NRL and SuperCoach experts reveal the big issues as clubs finetune their line-ups ahead of the season.