AT THE END OF THE DAY | ‘It’s about being happy’: Peachey’s message for next gen

The chip-and-chases, the premierships, the silky skills that defied his monstrous size, then there’s the genuinely friendly man behind the rugby league genius that effectively ruled Western division throughout the 1990s.

In one grand final, Peachey lined up against the Cobar Roosters, a side led by Tom Good, and a banner appeared in the crowd. It read: ‘Tom is Good, but Mick is God’.

Mick Peachey was as good a player that’s laced up a boot in this region.

But this is Mick’s yarn.

One about knock-backs, a short stint in the NRL, how he landed a degree in teaching and how, sometimes, when it doesn’t matter how much talent you have, you just have to pause and find what makes you happy.

For Peachey, that was always rugby league.

More specifically, bush footy.

A talented junior, Peachey didn’t really hit his straps until the age of 18 and got his first taste of top grade footy with the Mendooran Tigers, in the old Group 14 competition, in 1984.

“We used to go and watch the girls play netball and I was laying around one Saturday afternoon and my cousin Col Fuller said ‘come and have a run out at Mendooran, we’re looking for players’,” Peachey recalls.

Peachey’s older brother Martin was already out playing with the Tigers and helped the club win the premiership that season, knocking off Cobar in the decider.

“I played a lot of first grade that year but I didn’t get a run in the grand final. The coach, Bear Hall said if it was close I’d go on but if it was the other way the locals would get the game time,” he said.

Incredibly, that happened to Peachey the next year, too.

Back in Group 11, the young centre played most of that season in reserve grade with Macquaire, and often backed up for first grade.

He sat on the bench for the entire first grade grand final, the Raiders defeating Westside 28-24 in ‘85.

Two seasons, two grand finals, no game time – hard to swallow?

Not for Peachey. He was happy. And that’s the main thing.

Peachey had stints with Dubbo clubs CYMS, Westside and Macquarie as both a junior and in his fledgling first grade career in the bush, but really started to dominate when he went home, to Wellington.

It’s hard to know if there’s been a bigger statesmen at the Cowboys club.

Peachey won four grand finals in five seasons, taking home the 1992 and 1993 Group 11 player of the year award, too.

At the time, only Westside star of the 1980s Garry Walker had won back-to-back player of the year awards in first grade.

Grand final wins in 1990, 1991 and 1992 over Cobar, Forbes and then again Forbes, respectively, were followed by a tough 18-16 defeat at the hands of the Roosters in 1993.

The Cowboys, though, bounced back in ‘94 with a thumping 58-34 triumph over Parkes, capping the club’s most decorated era.

One Peachey is the icon of.

“I won a few comps, I suppose,” the incredibly modest former five-eighth said.

“I played in a few, so you have to win one or two if you play enough of them … the law of averages will tell you that.

“But there is one … I got nudded one year by two points, or something, in the player of the year count.

“There was one game my brother got the points in Narromine and he wasn’t even at the game. I played and they gave the points to my brother. Little things like that happen,” he laughed.

He played countless games for Western Division and Group 11, even taking on Great Britain at Wade Park.

“We were the last Western Division team to play Great Britain, in 88,” Peachey said.

“We got closer than we thought we’d get. They beat us by two points, then rolled the Australian side the next week.

“They had a good side, too, blokes that were well known. Ellery Hanley, those types, Martin Offiah. We had some good players too, my second-row partner was Mal Fitzgerald, he’s now with Wests Tigers.

“I still see a lot of the boys around, I still watch a bit of footy.

“Particularly at Wello, if I can get back,” the 53-year-old added, currently living in Bathurst.

Peachey has seven brothers and five sisters, two children – Adam and Monique – and three granddaughters.

“I’ve got a stack of nephews that play all over the place. Watching them, I try and do that as much as possible.

“There’s a couple at Westside, a couple of Macquarie, another here at Penguins and others in Wagga.

“I can go anywhere and run in to someone who knew me through footy, you always run in to someone.”

And that’s the biggest thing about Peachey – he seemingly knows everyone. 

He’s not shy to stop and talk, to just about anyone. He’ll talk sport – he played basketball and soccer growing up, too - schools, university – he’s now a director at CSU Bathurst – but invariably is asked about footy.

Group 11, Western Division, even Group 10, where he had a stint with the Mudgee Dragons in 1995 and 1996, taking out the Group 10 player of the year award in his final year at the club.

He remains the only player in the last four decades to win a player of the year award in both Western Rams group competitions.

But rarely does talk venture to his time in Sydney.

Where a brief stint with South Sydney eventually led to Peachey returning home, pretty abruptly, after two games.

“I went down there late in my career … went on against Illawarra in first grade, played the next week against the Roosters on the Friday night and home playing Parkes on the Sunday,” he said.

“My partner and son were still back in Wellington, and for me it’s about being happy. The footy was alright, but it’s about being comfortable where you are.”

Peachey left Sydney mid-season, after playing the bulk of the year in reserve grade in Sydney. He still took out Souths’ reserve grade player of the year award.

Peachey was dominant at almost every level he played the game.

But the titles and many, many individual accolades Peachey has won pale in comparison to the friendships the game has given him

“Meeting people, I think that’s helped me in other areas. It’s helped me in my career,” he said.

“It’s all about people… I’ve met some great people along the way, and that’s the best part about team sport.

“I go anywhere, and the kids always say that, ‘you’re always talking to someone’, but you should never be scared to talk to people.

“It’s something I enjoy doing.”

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