Peter Sterling OAM

Peter Sterling is a legend of NRL, a host of The Sunday Footy Show on Channel Nine and Monday Night Football on Triple M. He is a sensational speaker whose entertaining tales of the world of footy are in incredible demand.

Peter Sterling joined the Nine Network’s Wide World of Sports rugby league commentary team in 1992, after being forced to retire from rugby league with a chronic shoulder problem.

The man they refer to as ‘Sterlo’ started his professional rugby league career in 1978, when he left the NSW town of Wagga Wagga for a crack at the big time. He was just 17, and had just signed a three-year-deal with Parramatta worth a mere $9,000.

‘Sterlo’ went on to become one of the most dynamic players of the 1980s, and was regarded by many as rugby league’s greatest half-back.

When he retired from the game in 1992, Peter had played more than 200 first grade games, been in four premiership winning teams, played 18 Test games for Australia and 13 State of Origin games.

Peter Sterling is also a recipient of the Rothman’s Medal and Dally M Player Award and outperformed all-comers in a Challenge Cup Final at Wembley in England. In 1992 Peter’s role at Nine increased from commentator to that of contributor to Nine’s national sports programmes Wide World Of Sports and Sports Sunday. Then in 1993 with the debut of Nine’s then new Sunday afternoon The Footy Show, Peter was teamed with fellow commentator Paul ‘Fatty’ Vautin for the first time. The partnership took off immediately.

The following year, after a month-long trial of the program in a Thursday night primetime slot during the 1993 league finals, Peter added the hugely successful primetime version of the show to his television commitments.

Sterling currently calls two rugby league matches a week for the Nine Network, in addition to being a panel member on the Thursday and Sunday Footy Shows.

The success of The Footy Show certainly took the serious-minded Sterling by surprise. As the ‘voice of reason’ on the panel which also features former Newcastle player Andrew Johns as well as ex-Dragon, Wendell Sailor, Sterling has found himself playing straight man to Paul Vautin’s comic front man.

Sterling was a co-host on Nine Network’s The NRL Footy Show with Paul Vautin from 1994 to 2006. He made a special appearance on the first episode of 2007 to bid farewell then took up the position as host of The Sunday Footy Show. He also took up a key commentary role in Nine’s game coverage.

In March 2010, Sterling joined Triple M radio, as expert commentator on Monday Night Football as well as an occasional panelist on Dead Set Legends and The Grapple.

Peter Sterling has been recognised with several awards since retiring from football. In 1995, he was picked at halfback in a poll to judge the best Australian team since the introduction of the limited-tackle rule in 1967. He won eight of fourteen votes.

In 2000 he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to Australia’s international standing in rugby league and in 2006, he was one of six past players to be inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame at the Dally M. Awards 2006 award ceremony.

In February 2008, Sterling was named in the list of Australia’s 100 Greatest Players (1908-2007) which was commissioned by the NRL and ARL to celebrate the code’s centenary year in Australia.