So if it does end up being Price, we will have to 'settle' for the current NRL Premiers assistant coach?

Steve Price it is, and the ink is dry. You can lock this thread now.

Interesting to see how the other names in the frame for our coaching vacancy a year ago have gone on this season:

Dean Pay: Bulldogs finished 12th with 8 wins for the season, 2 fewer than they got in 2017.
Garth Brennan: Titan finished 14th with 8 wins, 1 more than they got in 2017.
Des Hasler: out of a job all year but looks set to return to Manly.
Geoff Toovey: out of a job all year, linked with Manly for 2019 but looks set to be beaten to it by Hasler.
Michael McGuire: no NRL job but took the NZ job following their disastrous World Cup and just beat Australia.

Haven't pulled up any trees have they. Guess we'll never know how things would have panned out in 2018 with a different coach at our helm, but I would have been happy with fourth and making two finals with any of the above in that role. SP has ticked a good few boxes so far, let's hope he completes the set in the future.

Austin with either KB and/or DP will be more than enough to beat the bin dippers and pies

Our pack got us to two finals, we need creativity. There's a lot of pressure and expectancy for Austin to deliver, as I've no belief in either Brown or Patton's ability to deliver when it matters.
Quite happy to be proved wrong though, as the standard disclaimer goes.