Ward happy to play for one dollar more

Penrith veteran ready to bow out with final appearance in World Club Challenge against Bradford

When Colin Ward carts the ball up for the Penrith Panthers in the World Club Challenge against Bradford on Friday night he will not be doing it for the money.

The senior player in the Australian champions' squad is on a record-breaking contract of one dollar - and he is not too worried whether on not he ever sees it.

It is a unique story and goes back to the bitterly disappointing day before last year's Grand Final when Ward was told by his coach, John Lang, that he was not in the team.

"It was a very tough thing to take," he says. "I'd been playing for 14 years and played in two losing Grand Finals, so it was hard in what I knew was my last year to watch the team I'd played for when they were struggling to win the big prize."

But the 33-year-old Ward had already been given a consolation prize of his own. "John asked if I was interested in playing in this game and I said I was. It's just a bonus for me to finish in a game like this, but if I was going to do it, I wanted to do it properly. I've trained all through the summer for one game."

After that, he is definitely retiring, to concentrate on his other career as a financial advisor. "I was the second oldest player in the National Rugby League last season and it's really a young man's game," he says.

"It's been great to be at Penrith whilst they've had this taste of success, but I accept that with all the young players they have coming through I can't be part of their future." When Ward, a no-nonsense forward with a wealth of experience, joined the Panthers he was going to the bottom club in the NRL and their chief executive, Shane Richardson, says that his contribution in moulding them into a winning side has been an important one.

"He was probably unlucky to be left out of the Grand Final, but he'd had a few injuries and the young blokes who came in developed so strongly," he says.

"It was still a very tough decision to leave him out, so it's good to be able to give him a finale like this." Because Ward is playing at the McAlpine Stadium on Friday night, he has to have a contract for the 2004 season. Hence the $1 which he claims Richardson still owes him.

More important is that he should end his long career with a victory that will make Penrith world champions. "It's going to be very difficult because there are a lot of unknowns going into this match," Ward says. "How we're going to back up from last year, how we're going to play in a different environment - it's all hard to predict, but I've got a lot of confidence in them. They've had a taste of success and they want more of it."

Penrith are without just two players from the side that beat the Sydney Roosters last October. Ryan Girdler has been ruled out by pleurisy, which means that the speedy Brett Howland comes in on the wing, with Luke Lewis - a player Richardson says has the ability to be one of Australia's best-ever - moving to centre.

The vacancy for Ward has appeared because Scott Sattler has moved to Wests-Tigers and Trent Waterhouse has stepped up from the bench to loose forward.

The Kangaroo tourist has not been seen in that role before, but Ward has no doubts about his ability to handle it. "He's a class player and very athletic, but it certainly gives us a big back-row," he says.

On the bench will be the Panthers' bargain signing, waiting for his chance to make his impact in the last match of his career - not that he expects to sign off with a spectacular length-of-the-field try or anything of that sort.

"I'm not that sort of player. I'll be thinking about just doing my job. It's a memorable way to finish my career and I don't want to remember it in a negative way." And after the game he will not doubt seek out Shane Richardson and demand his 2004 contract payment - in full. He will not need an armed guard to get out of the stadium safely with his earnings.