Billy Peden is an Australian former

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

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

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

for the

Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. They compete in Australasia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, th ...

(winning the

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

and 2001 premierships with them) and in the Super League for the London Broncos. Peden's usual position was at but he could also operate at .

Background

Peden was born in Cessnock, New South Wales.

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) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest players in rugby league history. Johns captained the Newcas ...

. Peden played at for the Knights in the 2001 NRL grand final 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. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and their ...

. 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 Fina ...

against Super League champions, the

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predom ...

. 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

Peden is now the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at

Harlequins RL The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club in London, England. The club competes in the RFL Championship. It was a member of Super League from its inaugural season in 1996 until the end of the 2014 season, when they were relegat ...

. He signed a three-year deal to work under Brian McDermott at the

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

club. Peden made his film début as an extra in the closing scenes of the 1988

Yahoo Serious Yahoo Serious (born Greg Gomez Pead; 27 July 1953) is an Australian film actor, director, and score composer. His films include the comedy films ''Young Einstein'' (1988), '' Reckless Kelly'' (1993), and '' Mr. Accident'' (2000). Serious writes ...

film

Young Einstein ''Young Einstein'' is a 1988 Australian comedy film written, produced, directed by and starring Yahoo Serious. It is a fantasized account of the life of Albert Einstein which alters all people, places and circumstances of his life, including r ...

. Peden is a former car mechanic. 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'.

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