There are many words you could use to describe Matt Peet but after an enlightening afternoon in the company of the Wigan Warriors coach, it quickly becomes apparent that ordinary is not one of them.
On Saturday Peet will become one of the youngest coaches in Super League history to lead his team out in the Grand Final when the Warriors face Catalans Dragons. Many of his contemporaries have had straightforward journeys to coaching rugby league’s elite; an impressive playing career as professionals before a seamless transition into coaching.
However, the 39-year-old’s journey to the biggest game on the Super League calendar is fascinating, and certainly not orthodox. It involves a degree in English, a grounding on the playing fields of Wigan’s amateur clubs, Catholicism and an obsession with reading philosophy. To suggest Peet isn’t your average rugby league coach would be putting it mildly.
“I probably do take a bit more pride the way I’ve got to this point,” Peet explains to the Guardian. “A lot of people have put trust in me over the years because I haven’t gone the linear way and when I walk out at Old Trafford on Saturday I’ll be proud to represent the club, my family, the people who’ve trusted me but most importantly, the community and the town of Wigan.”
Peet was raised in a family that had two main passions: Catholicism and Wigan rugby. “My grandparents’ houses had a picture of the Pope next to a picture of Billy Boston,” he smiles. “It was ingrained in me; the family habits revolved around going to church and going to Central Park.” It meant that playing rugby league was inevitable but as his peers were signed to professional deals, Peet had less luck.
“I tried my hardest,” he says when asked to sum up his ability as a player. He spent time in Warrington’s scholarship and Leigh’s reserve side but as he reached adulthood, made a decision to head in a different path. “Once I realised I wasn’t going to play for Wigan, I thought I’d go a different way with life,” he says. “As much as I admire people who play in the lower leagues, that wasn’t for me. I started looking away from rugby.”
Fuelled by a love of reading – “I like reading weird stuff, philosophy mostly but anything a bit different,” he laughs – Peet completed a degree in English at Manchester Metropolitan University.
However, aside from education, his coaching career was already beginning. He started helping out at his local club, Westhoughton Lions, coaching their Under-11s: a far cry from the cacophony of noise that awaits Peet at Old Trafford on Saturday night.
But it was an invaluable step in his life, and the sense of importance the community game has on Peet is evident. Peet frequently invites amateur clubs in to watch Wigan train and when the coach of Wigan St Patrick’s pops into his office to say hello, Peet welcomes him back any time before offering him tickets for Saturday’s Grand Final. “This club is as strong as its community,” he says. “Our success is defined by how connected we are to our roots.
“Slowly but surely, I became obsessed with coaching,” he says. “I was always a bit of a thinker when it came to the game and I just wanted to learn.” His hard work came to fruition with Wigan, helping out their reserve side at the age of 26. Peet was initially coaching for free before being offered a role on just £2,000 a year. “To make ends meet, I was assisting people with special needs and learning difficulties,” he says. “I would do anything that would enable me to keep coaching and fulfil my passion.”
His passion caught the eye of Shaun Wane, the current England coach and the man who was coaching Wigan’s first team at the time. “He would always make time for me, he could see I was keen,” Peet says. “I’d turn up to training, skip university and just stand there with my little notebook being obsessed. I stuck my nose in, asked questions and Waney took a shine to me. He’s always made time for me.”
Under Wane, Peet worked his way through the ranks at Wigan, becoming head of youth before opting to take a role at Sale Sharks as their head of performance in 2018. But barely a year later he had returned to his roots as assistant coach at Wigan. Then last year, his 15-year apprenticeship yielded the ultimate reward: head coach of his hometown club. Some felt that, without a playing career or previous coaching role to speak of, he was underprepared to coach such a huge sporting institution.
Yet within months of being appointed, he guided Wigan to the Challenge Cup last year and on Saturday, he will aim to deliver a first league title to the Warriors in five years. Win or lose against Catalans, Peet has shown that there is more than one way to the top of the game, and he hopes his journey can inspire other ambitious coaches to never give up.
“My belief is that I want my teams to look like a group of friends that are achieving something together,” he says when asked for his philosophy on coaching. “Rugby is the anchor for it, but I just like watching a group of men connect through a common purpose. To walk out with this group on Saturday will be very special in that sense. I’ll be immensely proud, and also grateful for those who’ve supported me on this journey.”
