Brian Francis Peake OAM (born 5 December 1953) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played for and in the

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL "waffle" or "W-A-F-L") is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting f ...

(WAFL), and in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(VFL). He also played State of Origin football for

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

from 1978 to 1987, captaining the side in 1979, 1980, 1986 and 1987. Peake was awarded the

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of then ...

in 1990 and was inducted into the

West Australian Football Hall of Fame The West Australian Football Hall of Fame was created in 2002 to recognise significant contributors to Australian rules football in Western Australia. Candidates are players, coaches, umpires, administrators and media representatives. The induct ...

in 2004, and into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the 1996 AFL season, centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media pe ...

in 2013.

WAFL career

The son of Laurie Peake, who played 89 games for East Fremantle, Peake was a versatile ruck-rover, half-forward flanker or centreman. Peake is of

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

heritage. He had a long and successful career with East Fremantle where he made his debut in 1972, playing in three premiership winning sides (

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

and 1985), winning a

Sandover Medal The Sandover Medal is an Australian rules football award, given annually since 1921 to the fairest and best player in the West Australian Football League. The award was donated by Alfred Sandover M.B.E., a prominent Perth hardware merchant an ...

in 1977 and captaining the

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perfo ...

side in 1979 and 1986. Peake played 296 premiership games for the Blue and Whites, and holds the record for six club Best and Fairests; after being controversially sacked with full support of the board by the Sharks three rounds into

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

, he moved on to

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

when no other WASFL club was interested in him. In his short career with the Demons, Peake played his 300th WAFL career premiership match before retiring after 372 career premiership matches in elite Australian rules football. Peake has been named a WAFL Hall of Fame Legend.

VFL career

After signing with

club

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

in 1976, but choosing to remain in Western Australia, Peake finally transferred to Geelong midseason in 1981. Amidst much hype he was flown to

Kardinia Park Kardinia Park is a major public park located in South Geelong, Victoria, South Geelong, Victoria (Australia), Victoria. A number of public and sporting facilities are located in the park: a major Australian Football League, AFL stadium, a seco ...

by helicopter for training where a crowd of 3000 fans awaited his arrival. In 1982 he was promoted to team captain after just 13 VFL games, although he gave up this position a year later to club game record holder

Ian Nankervis Ian James Nankervis (born 3 January 1948) is a former Australian rules footballer for the Geelong Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Nankervis played for Geelong for 17 seasons and was captain from 1978 to 1981, and again in ...

. Widely regarded as one of the most in-form players in the country at the time, Peake was paid $1,000 a game (high by 1980s standards). After the 1984 season, Peake returned to Western Australia, where he continued to play for a further six seasons.

Other matches

Peake also played nine night series matches for East Fremantle and 22 interstate matches for Western Australia, along with a night series match for Geelong (these are recognised as senior by the WAFL but not by the VFL/AFL). If these matches are included, then Peake played a total of 404 senior career games, becoming the second West Australian behind

Barry Cable Barry Thomas Cable MBE (born 22 September 1943) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach. Considered one of the greatest rovers in the sport's history, he played in 379 premiership games in the Western Australian Football League (WAFL ...

to reach 400 senior career games, and equalling Cable's record for most career senior games played by any elite Australian rules football player born in Western Australia.Townsend, Joh
Hall of Fame should peek at Peake
; ''The West Australian'' The VFL/AFL list Cable and Peake's total as 403, excluding their VFL/AFL night series match (Cable for North Melbourne and Peake for Geelong).

Notes

References

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External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Peake, Brian 1953 births Living people All-Australians (1953–1988) East Fremantle Football Club players Geelong Football Club captains Geelong Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Perth, Western Australia Perth Football Club players Sandover Medal winners West Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Western Australian State of Origin players Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Australian people of Māori descent