Peter Sterling OAM
Peter Sterling OAM
Sport Australia Hall of Fame
Peter Sterling won 4 NRL Premierships with the Parramatta Eels in the 1980’s, won the inaugural Clive Churchill Medal in 1986 for best on ground in the Grand Final and the ‘Golden Boot’ Award for best player in the world in 1989. Peter played 13 games for the NSW Blues in State of Origin (winning the man of the match on 4 occasions) and 18 Tests for Australia. In retirement, Peter is a high-profile Nine Network rugby league commentator and media pundit.
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. In the following year 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.
Peter 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, Peter joined Triple M radio, as expert commentator on Monday Night Football as well as an occasional panellist on Dead Set Legends and The Grapple. In 2013, Peter hosted a weekly NRL show on Fox Sports called Sterlo. He now hosts On the Couch with Sterlo on Tuesday evenings in season.
Peter has been recognised with several awards since retiring from football. In 2000 he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to Australia’s international standing in rugby league and in the same year inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. 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, Peter 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.