EXCERPT: Steve Price - Be Your Best

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EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT: Warriors captain and Australian league star Steve Price says the club was "out of control" under controversial previous boss Mick Watson. In a new book out today, Price reveals his despair at being innocently caught up in a Watson-inspired salary cap scam.

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Warriors captain and Australian league star Steve Price says the club was "out of control" under controversial previous boss Mick Watson. In a new book out today, Price reveals his despair at being innocently caught up in a Watson-inspired salary cap scam.

I went out of my way to give Mick Watson and the Warriors the benefit of the doubt, but it didn't take long to realise that something was amiss after I arrived in 2005.

My manager had had his concerns and told me straight out, but I said, 'No, give them a chance. I'm sure they can't be as bad as you think'.
 
Still, I was wary from day one and as time went by I began to piece a worrying puzzle together. Mick would often invite me to his house in those early days to discuss the Warriors and I was far from impressed by the way he would speak about individuals at the club.

The one that stands out clearly was when he asked me, 'What do you think about your brother-in-law coming over to play for us? I'm thinking of swapping Francis Meli for Brent. I think he could give us more value and I could pay your brother-in-law what I'm paying Francis which is really good money for him'. I told him, 'I don't really know if that's going to be possible. I don't think Brent will leave the Broncos and I don't think Wayne (Bennett) will let him go'.
 
Mick may have been ambitious but I didn't like the way he was talking about some of the players that were already at the club. I had seen him talk to Francis acting as if they were good mates and I couldn't help but wonder: 'If you're saying that to me about Francis, what are you saying to the other guys about me?'

I had heard a number of things about PJ Marsh and how he was sent packing from the club when he really didn't want to be. Mick would tell me that PJ was causing problems, but the players said otherwise. Then there was Vinnie Anderson. He had just returned from the Kiwi tour of Great Britain when all of a sudden he started being called out of training to meet with Mick. Two weeks later he was off to St Helens in England. Before he left he was quoted in the media saying, 'I'll never play for the Warriors while Mick Watson is in charge'. Mick would tell me that there were a number of issues with Vinnie — one being that he was told not to tour with the Kiwis in 2004 so he could get over an injury and have a full pre-season for the club — and that he didn't have the right attitude, but that didn't make sense to me. I had started to become good friends with Vinnie and he loved being at the Warriors, loved living in New Zealand and loved his team-mates. Here was Mick telling me otherwise and it didn't add up.

Eventually Mick stopped talking to me as well.  Rumours started circling through the media about how I was homesick and wanted to return to the Bulldogs. People would call me to ask if the rumours were true and I had to tell them they were way off the mark.
 
It was exactly the same cycle that had taken place time and time again. I had heard similar stories about Ali Lauiti'iti and even Stacey Jones. Once the rumours began about me I knew I was next on the chopping block.

I just didn't like the way he went about his business. There was no trust in the place and I could understand why.

Even the front office staff were frightened of him. Mick is quite an intimidating guy when you look at the size of him and he can be quite aggressive.

And Mick always had some strange ideas. He said to me once, completely out of the blue: 'What do you think about Tim Sheens?' I said, 'I think he's a very good coach'. Mick asked, 'What do you reckon about us getting Tim Sheens as our coach?' I told him, 'That's fine, but I think he's signed with Wests Tigers'. Wayne Bennett was next. Mick said, 'What about Wayne Bennett? He's a good coach — we'll get Wayne Bennett'.

That was Mick's thinking process. If something wasn't working he thought he could just snap his fingers and bring in the best. They were strange times but what really started to ring alarm bells was watching Mick go about his daily business. I knew what a difficult job it was to be CEO and how much time it takes up, but when I arrived at the Warriors, Mick was training with the players — nearly full-time!

Three years after my dreams were shattered when the Bulldogs had 37 points deducted, the salary cap struck yet again. The Warriors had been found to be in breach of the salary cap by almost $1 million in 2004–05. I was devastated. It was like a bad recurring nightmare.

Worst of all, the NRL began focusing their investigations on me because of some irregularities in my contract and the fact that Ruben (Wiki) and I had been the latest big recruits to the club. Their primary concern was that there were some differences between the letter of intent I signed in July 2004 and the actual contract that we finalised the following February.

I actually ended up signing two contracts with the Warriors — the first being my playing contract and the second relating to a radio show. Although I was assured that everything was above board, the fact that there were two separate contracts was enough for the NRL to accuse me of trying to help the club get around the salary cap.

The fact that there was an eight-month gap between signing the letter of intent and my actual contract didn't help, but that was out of my control. I was calling my manager every single week asking where the contract was because I had been in that situation before with the Bulldogs and ended up signing for less money than had been originally agreed.

Perhaps Mick had intended that to be the case because he never expected to secure both Ruben and me and was shitting himself when we both said yes.

The NRL was considering deregistering me because they felt that I had an involvement in the club trying to evade the salary cap and were trying to make an example of me.

Nobody even bothered to mention that the club had also been over the cap in 2004 before Ruben and I even arrived! I thought the Warriors had a CEO who was out of control and I was the one who very nearly copped the brunt of it.

It felt just like what had happened at the Bulldogs where the players, the fans and the sponsors were the ones that were punished while management walked away scot-free.

* Steve Price - Be Your Best, by Ben Blaschke is published by Hachette Livre NZ Ltd. RRP $39.99. On sale nationwide from Thursday.

- © Fairfax NZ News