Ray Price

Ray Price was a rugby union international breakaway who crossed to league and Parramatta in 1976 and, as a lock, quickly established himself as one of the most relentless players in the game.

Though Parramatta lost grand finals in each of his first two seasons, in 1978 he made his Test debut, forcing great rivals Rod Reddy (St George) and Greg Pierce (Cronulla), into the second row.

Having appeared in all five Tests on the 1978 Kangaroo tour, Price enjoyed arguably his greatest season in 1979, when he played in all three Ashes Tests (winning the Harry Sunderland Medal as Australia's best player in the series) and won the Rothmans Medal and Rugby League Week's player-of-the-year award (he would win a second RLW title in 1985, and the Dally M player-of-the-year trophy in 1982).

However, premiership success eluded him until 1981 when he starred in the Eels' grand final win over Newtown.

This was the first of four grand final wins for the man tagged as ''Mr Perpetual Motion'', the last coming in 1986, in what proved to be a perfect farewell from Sydney football for both him and his great club and international teammate Mick Cronin.

The 4–2 victory over Canterbury was his 259th first-grade game.

Price had been chaired from the Test arena at the end of the 1984 Ashes series, having announced his retirement from international football after playing in 22 Tests, and touring twice with the Kangaroos.