Sports Confidential: Ray Price’s statue has been salvaged from demolished Parramatta Stadium

SPORTS CONFIDENTIAL: What happened to Ray Price’s statue when they tore down Parramatta Stadium?

Eels fans gather around the Ray Price statue as a mark of solidarity before the Parramatta Eels v South Sydney Rabbitohs NRL round 10 game at Pirtek Stadium, Parramatta. pic Mark Evans

PARRAMATTA legend Ray Price was relieved to know his statue has turned up safely in a Seven Hills government warehouse.

The stadium was demolished this week, but Sports minister Stuart Ayres assured us Pricey was in good hands, and would return to the new Boulevard of Legends, which will feature at the new Western Sydney Stadium when completed in 2019.

Price told us he was still trying to work out why the stadium needed to be ripped down in the first place.

Parramatta Eels great Ray Price statue safely curated for storage.

“The playing surface was great, and all they needed to do was add a few extra seats,’’ Price said.

The man they called Mr Perpetual Motion said he would have loved to have seen Kieran Foran and Corey Norman spent an entire season together in the halves, and their alertness on the field reminded him of Peter Sterling.

As for Foran now playing with the New Zealand Warriors, Price said: “No comment.’’

SCOTT WILL LOCK IT IN

WHILE Price was regarded as one of the greatest locks of all time, Beau Scott will be the man who makes the permanent move to the middle this season.

The shift allows coach Brad Arthur to try and get 80 minutes out of gun backrowers Tepai Moeroa and Manu Ma’u.

Scott spent a bit of time in the middle at the back end of last year, and was happy for the latest challenge.

The no-nonsense forward also had high hopes for Eels fullback Bevan French.

“He had a huge off-season, displayed a bit of brilliance in the All Stars, he’s elusive, fast, and picked up a fair bit of strength in the off-season, so I’m excited to see what he’ll produce this year,’’ the Eels co-captain said.

Scott will play lock for the Eels this season.

LOSING LEGENDS WON’T CRIPPLE MANLY

DALY Cherry-Evans said there was only one positive about the medical retirements of Manly greats Brett Stewart and Steve Matai.

“They haven’t been able to train all pre-season, so we’ve prepared without them,’’ the new Sea Eagles skipper said.

“That’s the only positive.

“We need a lot of people to put their hands up to cover for two very experienced players who won four premierships between them and played more than a combined 450 NRL games.’’

The NRL are yet to grant Manly their wish to retire Snake and Matai on medical grounds, which would exclude any potential earnings from their salary cap.

As for the captain, DCE said he wanted to adopt the ‘’calm on-field demeanour’’ of former skipper Jamie Lyon, and Jason King’s knack of making every player feel welcome, ‘’whether they’re a 200-game player or a rookie’’.

Taylor’s future will be decided on Saturday night.

LAST STOP FOR THE COAL TRAIN?

BIG Dave Taylor gets his final shot at a Canberra Raiders contract in a trial on Saturday night.

But the Coal Train has also been preparing for life after footy by learning about the bar game at the nearby Hotel Queanbeyan.

Manager Matt Griffin told us Raiders coach Ricky Stuart contacted him before Christmas and asked if Taylor could be shown the ropes.

And Taylor has not disappointed Griffin, coming in around three days a week, pulling beers, selling raffle tickets, even cleaning the occasional toilet.

O’NEILL TAKES A TUMBLE

DUAL Olympic gold medallist Susie O’Neill is nursing a broken fin after taking a tumble at the local skate park.

O’Neill told us she had broken her fibula while taking a spin on 11-year-old son Bill’s new skateboard.

“And to top it off, I got a 14cm blood clot in the calf,’’ O’Neill said.

O’Neill will be required to rest for at least another month, which also means to hopping in a pool for exercise.

Susie O'Neil took a tumble.

BIG SAM NEEDS A BIG SLEEP

SAM Burgess was caught snoozing on the way to the Fox Sports launch on Wednesday.

The South Sydney pin-up poked fun of his teammates six weeks ago when they were complaining about their young kids keeping them up until all hours.

“I remember saying to them, ‘boys, it’s easy, what are you complaining about’,’’ Burgess said.

“Then (daughter) Poppy came along, I fell asleep in the car on the way out to the launch, and Greggy (Inglis) just looked at me, smiled and said, ‘how you finding it mate?’.’’

Souths Hollywood owner Russell Crowe clearly does not believe in paternity leave, with Burgess’ daughter born on a Tuesday, and the Englishman required for training on Thursday.

Burgess caught a nap on the way to the Fox Legaue launch.

NICHOLAS READY TO GO

MARK Nicholas has overcome his mystery illness and will return to Nine’s commentary box today for Australia’s first T20 against Sri Lanka.

MANTON LIES LOW

SKY Channel race-caller Anthony Manton has bunkered down since Tuesday’s explosive episode of Married At First Sight where more than one million TV viewers watched him leave one of the show’s ‘’wives’’ in tears.

In Manton’s defence, it’s understood there was some creative editing by the show’s producers, with some of the footage taken from episodes shot up to two weeks earlier.

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DWZ SET TO RE-SIGN

DALLIN Watene-Zelezniak will be sidelined the next month with a knee injury, but expect the Penrith flyer to re-sign with the club while in recovery. Only a few third-party sponsor issues need to be tidied up.

VIVA LA SHARKS

THE Cronulla players caught the fast train from London to Paris on Wednesday, posing for snaps in front of the famous Eiffel Tower, and even taking the chance to hire push bikes around the City of Love.

One Instagram post from Andrew Fifita included Jack Bird almost taking a tumble off a two-wheeler.

HUNGRY DOGS

SOME of the Canterbury players missed out on a feed on the return flight from the Auckland Nines, only for some of the Cronulla support staff to kindly donate their meal tickets to their hungry rivals.