Billy Peden is an Australian former

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He played in Australasia's

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

for the

Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league team based in Newcastle, New South Wales that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, the Knights joined the top-tier competition in New ...

(winning the

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

and

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

premierships with them) and in the

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

for the

London Broncos The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club based in Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon, England. They play their home games at Plough Lane and currently compete in the RFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of British rugby le ...

. Peden's usual position was at but he could also operate at .

Background

Peden was born in

Cessnock, New South Wales Cessnock () is a city in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, Australia, about by road west of Newcastle, New South Wales, Newcastle. It is the administrative centre of the City of Cessnock Local government in Australia, LGA and was named afte ...

. Peden is a former

car mechanic An auto mechanic is a mechanic who services and repairs automobiles, sometimes specializing in one or more automobile brands or sometimes working with any brand. In fixing cars, their main role is to diagnose and repair the problem accuratelS ...

Playing career

Peden played in the 1997 ARL grand final victory over Manly-Warringah which was the club's first premiership. The game is remembered for Darren Albert scoring under the posts in the final 10 seconds of the game after receiving an inside ball from

Andrew Johns Andrew Gary Johns (born 19 May 1974), also known by the nickname Joey, is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He is considered one of the greatest rugby league players of all time. Johns ...

. Peden played at for the Knights in the

2001 NRL grand final The 2001 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 2001 NRL season. It was contested at Stadium Australia in Sydney by the Newcastle Knights (who had finished the regular season in third place), and the Parramatta E ...

and scored two tries in his side's win over the

Parramatta Eels The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and ...

. Having won the 2001 NRL Premiership, the Knights traveled to England to play the

2002 World Club Challenge The 2002 World Club Challenge was held on Friday, 1 February 2002, at the Alfred McAlpine Stadium, Huddersfield, England. The game was contested by Bradford Bulls and Newcastle Knights. Background Bradford Bulls The 2001 Super League Grand Fin ...

against

champions, the

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, and compete in the Championship, the second tier of British rugby league. The club have won the League Championship six times, the Challenge Cup f ...

. Peden played at in Newcastle's loss. In 2011, Peden spoke at the Once-A-Knight Old Boys grand final lunch about the 2001 grand final saying ‘"In 1997 it was special because it was the first one ... and all the emotion involved with that, but 2001 had its own emotions attached to it in terms of being a unified premiership and we were challenged on the fact that 1997 wasn’t. "I was lucky to have played in two great sides. You look at the blokes sitting here today and you have to pinch yourself to think you actually played with those blokes, so I was very blessed".

Post playing

In 2006, Peden signed a three-year deal to join the coaching staff at Harlequins RL. Peden has also had a coaching role with his former club

. In 2011, the Cessnock club's centenary year, Peden was named on the bench in a Cessnock 'Team of the Century'. Peden later took a job working in underground coal mining around the Lake Macquarie area.

References

External links

*
NRL stats
1970 births Living people Australian rugby league players Cessnock Goannas players London Broncos players Newcastle Knights captains Newcastle Knights players Rugby league locks Rugby league players from Cessnock, New South Wales {{Australia-rugbyleague-bio-1970s-stub