Peter Pianto (25 November 1929 – 19 February 2008) was an

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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played for the

Geelong Football Club The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed the Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition, and are the 2022 ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL) and the

Claremont Football Club The Claremont Football Club, nicknamed Tigers, is an Australian rules football club based in Claremont, Western Australia, that currently plays in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). Its official colours are na ...

in the

West Australian National Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) 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 from March to September, ...

(WANFL) and later coached Geelong, replacing teammate Bob Davis. Pianto was a brilliant rover who was recruited from

Eaglehawk The wedge-tailed eagle (''Aquila audax'') is the largest bird of prey in the continent of Australia. It is also found in southern New Guinea to the north and is distributed as far south as the state of Tasmania. Adults of this species have lon ...

and he chose to join Geelong because of its country atmosphere, after having offers from four league clubs. He played 121 games and kicked 144 goals over seven years with the Cats, mainly playing as a rover and he was a premiership player with Geelong in 1951 and 1952. One of his most memorable efforts was his career high five goal performance in the 1953 semi final against Collingwood. During his career Pianto was a best and fairest winner, All-Australian and Victorian interstate representative. He polled well in the

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the " best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by ...

counts, finishing fourth in 1952 and second in 1956. Pianto played for Victoria nine times and won the club best and fairest in 1953. After retiring from the VFL in 1957, he coached Colac and then Claremont as captain-coach for three years between 1961 and 1963, before returning to Geelong to coach them between 1966 and 1970, including the

1967 VFL Grand Final The 1967 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Richmond Football Club and Geelong Football Club at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 23 September 1967. It was the 70th annual grand final of the Victorian Footb ...

. Pianto is a member of the Geelong Football Club Hall of Fame and Team of the Century. In

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

Pianto was appointed State coach for the VFL's interstate matches against

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

and

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. In his later life he was a member of the club's history and tradition committee. Upon news of his death in 2008, Geelong's acting CEO Stuart Fox released the following statement:

"Peter was an outstanding person who served the club in many capacities for over 50 years. Peter was a brilliant premiership player, and later he coached the club and took is to the 1967 grand final. In recent times he was a member of the club's history and tradition committee. Peter was a warm and friendly man and was popular with everyone associated with the club. His former teammates, those that played under him when he was a coach and all that came in contact with him through the tours he conducted were touched in some way by him. Peter will be sadly missed and we offer our deepest condolences to his family and friends at this sad time."

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Player stats
at WAFL FootyFacts {{DEFAULTSORT:Pianto, Peter 1929 births 2008 deaths Geelong Football Club players Geelong Football Club Premiership players Geelong Football Club coaches Carji Greeves Medal winners Claremont Football Club players All-Australians (1953–1988) Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Eaglehawk Football Club players Colac Football Club players Two-time VFL/AFL Premiership players