The amateur club Westhoughton Lions could hardly be more different from the occasion Matty Peet will be faced with in Saturday’s Challenge Cup final, but ask the Wigan Warriors coach about his unconventional route to the rugby league summit and he would almost certainly tell you both ends of his story are equally important.
Barely six months after being unveiled as Wigan’s new head coach, Peet is one win away from securing the Challenge Cup for rugby league’s most famous club for a record-extending 20th occasion. While most head coaches fall into the role after a distinguished playing career, Peet’s own time as a professional barely extended beyond a short stint as a reserves player with Leigh Centurions.
He called time on his playing career in his early 20s, instead heading to university before taking his first steps into coaching with Westhoughton’s under-12s. Eventually securing a job helping coach Wigan’s young players, Peet has subsequently taken on pretty much every coaching role at the club either side of a short stint in rugby union with Sale. He is far from your ordinary head coach, but he is a man the Warriors have earmarked for the top job for years.
“I remember I watched him do a training session once with the academy,” Wigan’s executive director, Kris Radlinski, says. “He just did things I had never seen before. After the session I went back and reported it to the chairman and said, ‘There’s something different in this lad’. He is a thinker and he was doing things I’d never seen.” It was an appointment that caught many Wigan fans off-guard last year given his lack of experience, but not the Warriors.
In recent seasons Wigan have lacked any sort of attacking flair, or indeed success. Peet has set about changing those things and the impact has been immediate, with the Warriors now in Saturday’s final against Huddersfield at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. His unique style has caught the eye of his players, too. “He’s a brilliant listener and communicator, and pretty much unlike any other coach I’ve had before,” Wigan’s long-serving England international Liam Farrell says.
“He’s a deep thinker, he knows so much about the game and you can tell he’s dedicated his life to coaching. But the big thing for me is he knows every inch of this club, every member of staff, and as such he understands what the supporters expect from their team. Being from the area and a supporter of the club too, he just gets Wigan, which is important I think for a club like this where the standards are so high.”
Peet, understanding that Wigan supporters had grown weary of a more methodical, structured style of play, also set about making his side more attractive to watch. He brought in the former Great Britain half-back Lee Briers from Warrington to lead the attack, while also transitioning Wigan’s legendary captain, Sean O’Loughlin, into a post-playing role in charge of the defensive side of the Warriors.
“I’m sure Matty delivers his message to the staff privately but in our meetings, he lets Briersy and Lockers take the lead, which is pretty unique,” Farrell says. “I’m sure he has a big input in what they say but he’s calm and trusts people. When he got the job, Matty got the senior players in and asked us what we needed to change and improve and how we could be better. He listened to us, and he’s made sure our opinions were valued.
“Taking the job was a big learning curve for him and some people might have thought it was too early, but he’s done a good job of proving everyone wrong so far.”
The Wigan fullback Jai Field, perhaps Super League’s standout player in 2022, has credited Peet’s approach and style as a major reason in why he has been so good this year and it seems everywhere you turn, Peet’s measured yet unique approach to coaching is earning him admirers.
“He’s very different in his approach,” the Wigan prop Kaide Ellis says. “He’s very psychological with his players but he’s got a good balance. He doesn’t get too technical, he’s more on mindset and big on culture.” Every fortnight, Wigan’s players hold “culture sessions”, discussing life away from rugby. Peet is also keen for his players to be hands-on in the community, tightening the link between the club and the supporters.
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It is certainly a different way to coach. But just months into a reign some felt would never amount to any success, Peet is one win away from his first trophy as a head coach. He said this year he would not consider himself a genuine Wigan coach until he delivered a trophy. You can be sure they will be watching in Westhoughton, where it all started nearly 20 years ago, to see if that vision becomes a reality.
