Steve Price delighted by the way Warrington Wolves have bounced back to reach Grand Final

Warrington Wolves head coach Steve Price: Has seen his side bounce back.

The 40-year-old Australian endured a difficult start to his first season in charge of Wolves, with just two wins from his first six matches as successor to the long-serving Tony Smith.

Smith paid the price for his club finishing in the bottom four in 2017 and doubts were raised over the ability of his successor when they found themselves two points off the bottom of the table six weeks into the new season.

However, a 26-0 win at Catalans Dragons, the team they would go on to play in the Challenge Cup final, suddenly changed everything.

“When I first came to the club I only knew three players,” said Price. “I always knew it was going to take a bit of time, I wasn’t quite sure how long.

“The start we had was a bit scratchy, we were dishing up inconsistent performances, but I always had the belief in the playing group.

“The turning point for me was in March when we went over to Catalans in the wet and we nilled them.

“Sitting in the aeroplane coming back to Manchester I felt that burning feeling in my stomach, I knew then we had a football team.

“We went on that really good run of 10 wins and throughout the season the players and the team have got better through hard work.”

That 10-match winning run took Price’s men into the last eight of the Cup and they went on to beat Wigan and Leeds to set up a Wembley showdown with the Dragons.

Sadly for the 20,000 Warrington fans at the national stadium the team under-performed and lost 20-14, but Price says the heart-to-heart discussions that followed helped kick-start their season.

Tomorrow they have the chance to make history with a maiden Grand Final victory over Wigan at Old Trafford.

“Wembley wasn’t one of our greatest days, but we learned a lot of important aspects about each other,” he said. “Sometimes you need some tough discussions, some brutal honesty in life. It’s not nice, but it is what it is. To get to where we want to be, to hold trophies in October, you’ve got to have those discussions.

“I’m super proud of the players to be able to rebound from that setback and put ourselves in a position to be able to create history on Saturday night.

“You’ve seen a number of strong performances from that day from the team. It’s about how much they care about each other.”

Warrington have already lost three times at Old Trafford and they face a Wigan team on a roll, hoping to send popular coach Shaun Wane out on a high.