League legend Steve Price graduates with MBA

Today marked a significant highlight in the career of rugby league legend Steve Price – and his mum Margaret Sullivan, of Toowoomba, was there to share it with him.

The sporting superstar – formerly the New Zealand Warriors captain and Sydney Canterbury Bulldogs star player for many years – stepped up to the podium to receive his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Southern Cross University.

Steve hobbled onto the stage, his right foot strapped because of a sporting injury that has prevented him from playing his usual prop position in tonight’s Australia versus New Zealand Trans-Tasman test match, being held at AAMI Park in Melbourne. He will, however, be a spectator there tonight.

Steve, 36, said he planned to retire from football at the end of the current National Rugby League (NRL) season, saying ‘the time is right to walk away’.

“Rugby league is my passion, I love the game and I love the sport,” Steve said. “But after 17 seasons, I want to spend more time with my family.”

Steve played the first 11 seasons of his career with the Canterbury Bulldogs, playing 222 games with them, before moving to the Warriors in 2005. He has played 313 games in the NRL and 15 Tests for Australia.

After his graduation ceremony at the Lismore campus Steve said he was thrilled to have finally achieved his dream of graduating with an MBA – after four long years of hard slog, juggling a professional sporting career, work and the demands of a young family. He is the first member of his family to have achieved a university degree.

“A lot of my team mates, when they retired, thought their high profiles would secure them a job,” Steve said. “Many have been shocked to find that this just hasn’t happened and this has been a ‘wake-up call’ for me.

“I realised that I needed to get some proper business credentials behind me so that I could move into a new career after I retired as a professional sportsman.

“Walking away from my rugby league career with an MBA behind me is just fantastic and I want to thank the NRL and Southern Cross University for supporting me to achieve this.

“I studied via distance education through a partnership the University has with the Manukau Institute of Technology in New Zealand where the University’s Graduate College of Management offers its MBA and DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) through an educational collaboration. The support I have received has been absolutely sensational.

“I now have the confidence and skills to move into another role. I am not sure what will come up for me, but I love sport, I love people and I love leading and inspiring people so I do believe I have very special skills to offer the right organisation, which, coupled with my extensive on-the-field sporting experience, should make me very employable in a role that combines both sets of attributes.”

Steve, who lives in Auckland with his wife Joanne and three children aged 14, 12 and 9, said it was now his wife’s turn to study, as she had enrolled in a teaching degree.

“I know how tough it is studying, so I will be supporting her 100 percent,” he said.

Photo: Rugby league legend Steve Price, who graduated today with his Master of Business Administration, shared the joy with his mother, Margaret Sullivan, of Toowoomba.