Matthew Peet (born 15 April 1984) is an English professional

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 ...

coach who is the

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

of the

Wigan Warriors The Wigan Warriors is an English professional rugby league club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester. The club competes in the Super League, the top tier of the British rugby league system. Formed in 1872, the club is a founding member of the Ru ...

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 ...

Background

Peet was born in

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

and played amateur rugby league for many years around the area. After failing to secure a professional contract, he switched direction and studied English at

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Education ...

. Upon graduation and completion of his degree in 2005, he returned to rugby league focusing on coaching.

Career

Peet began coaching at amateur level with the senior sides of both Westhoughton Lions and

Wigan St Patricks Wigan St. Patricks is an amateur rugby league football club based in the Scholes area of Wigan, Greater Manchester. The first team plays in the National Conference League Division One . In 1986, the club was one of ten founder members of the B ...

, before joining

in 2008 as a part time Scholarship coach. Peet went on to hold a number of roles within the club's youth ranks before being appointed to his first full-time position as the club's youth performance coach. In 2013, he was promoted to Head of Youth Performance, a role he would hold until 2018. Wigan's youth sides would win their respective Grand Finals six out of the seven years he was in the role. During this time he also held the dual role of England Rugby League Academy assistant coach from 2013–2016. In 2018, he switched codes to

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

, joining the

Sale Sharks Sale Sharks are a professional rugby union club from Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom. Its team play in Premiership Rugby, and have been in England's top division of rugby union continuously since 1995. Originally founded in 1861 as ...

as High Performance Manager, before returning to Wigan a year later as Assistant Coach to then-Head Coach,

Adrian Lam Adrian Lam (born 25 August 1970) is a Papua New Guinean professional rugby league coach, and former player, who is currently the head coach of the Super League club Leigh Leopards. He played for the Sydney Roosters in the National Rugby Leagu ...

On 5 October 2021, following the departure of Lam, Peet was promoted to head coach. On 28 May 2022, in his inaugural season as head coach, Peet coached Wigan to victory in the 2022 Challenge Cup Final over

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...

and to second place finish at the end of the 2022 regular season. However, the club did not reach the grand final, losing 20–8 against

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

in the semi-final. In September 2022, Peet was awarded Super League Coach of the Year at the 2022 Super League Awards. The following season, Wigan won the League Leaders' Shield after winning 20 games of 27 in regular season; and, on 14 October, Peet coached Wigan to their

2023 Super League Grand Final The 2023 Super League Grand Final, was the 26th official grand final, and championship-deciding rugby league game of Super League XXVIII. The match was contested between Wigan Warriors and Catalans Dragons, at Old Trafford. St Helens were the ...

victory over the

Catalans Dragons The Catalans Dragons (French language, French: ''Dragons Catalans'', Catalan language, Catalan: ''Dracs Catalans'') are a professional rugby league club from Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales department, France. Despite being based in France the ...

securing the league title for the first time since 2018 and qualifying for the

World Club Challenge The World Club Challenge is an annual rugby league competition between the winners of the Australian National Rugby League and the British Super League, for the de facto club world championship of the sport. Super League sides have won the c ...

. Peet's Wigan hosted the match in their opening home game of 2024, winning the match 16–12 over Penrith to win the 2024 World Club Challenge, meaning Peet had won every honour available to him as Wigan coach. Following the game,

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

compared Peet's impact on the club to that of

Alex Ferguson Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson (born 31 December 1941) is a Scottish former professional football manager and player, best known for managing Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is widely regarded as the greatest manager of all time and ...

Pep Guardiola Josep "Pep" Guardiola Sala (; born 18 January 1971) is a Catalans, Catalan professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player from Spain who has been the manager of club Manchester City F.C., Ma ...

and

Jürgen Klopp Jürgen Norbert Klopp (; born 16 June 1967) is a German football executive and former Manager (association football), manager and Football player, player. He is widely regarded as one of the best football managers in the world. Klopp has been ...

. On 20 March 2024, Peet signed a new seven-year contract, keeping him at the club until 2030. On 8 June 2024, Peet coached Wigan to victory in the 2024 Challenge Cup final over Warrington. On 12 October 2024, Peet coached Wigan in their 9-2 2024 Super League grand final victory over Hull Kingston Rovers.

Honours

As head coach

Wigan Warriors

**Winners (2):

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

* League Leaders' Shield **Winners (2):

Challenge Cup The Rugby Football League Challenge Cup, commonly known just as the Challenge Cup is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, it is the world's old ...

**Winners (2):

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

**Winners (1):

Individual

*Super League Coach of the Year **Winners (1):

*SJA Committee Award **Winners (1): 2024https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/video/12780/13257140/matt-peet-proud-and-grateful-after-receiving-sja-committee-award

Notes

References

External links

Wigan Warriors profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peet, Matt 1984 births Living people Wigan Warriors coaches English rugby league coaches