How Wigan’s glory charge is fuelled by Animal Farm

Peet’s success built on Orwell, poetry and Roman philosophy

MATT PEET is standing on the top-floor balcony of the Lowry Theatre in Salford. It is, it turns out, a fitting place to meet the cultured Wigan Warriors head coach.

‘I like theatre,’ the 38-year-old tells Sportsmail. ‘I also like poetry. I like William Blake. And I like to read. I read quite a lot of Stoic stuff, like Marcus Aurelius.’

An 18th-century poet and a Roman emperor turned philosopher, not names you expect to come up in conversation with one of the coaches contesting tomorrow’s Challenge Cup final.

But Peet is full of surprises, including how he wrote his dissertation for his English degree on George Orwell.

‘I just wanted to be different,’ admits Super League’s youngest boss, who has just finished reading The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. ‘All my mates were doing PE and sports science and I wanted to break away from the stereotype.

‘I wanted to go to university. I did my dissertation on Orwell — the difference between the early stuff he wrote, like The Road to Wigan Pier, and then finishing with Animal Farm and 1984. It was interesting. 1984 is a fantastic, frightening book.’

As for Peet’s own road to Wigan Warriors, that actually began at the same time as he was reading Orwell at university.

Having stopped playing to concentrate on his studies, he was asked by a friend to help coach the juniors at Bolton-based Westhoughton Lions. That was something he continued, alongside a part-time job in a gym, even after graduating.

Then, in 2008, he got his break with Wigan as a scholarship coach. Aside from one year as head of performance for rugby union side Sale Sharks, he has been at his boyhood club ever since, rising through the ranks from taking the Under 18s, to overseeing the academy, to now being in charge of the first team.

‘It’s funny because I’ve always wanted to travel, meet new people and experience new things — and I ended up back where I started,’ laughs the Wiganer.

‘I only played semi-professional but what I’ve missed out on in playing experience, I’ve been able to serve a really good apprenticeship as a coach.

‘I am a coach, not a player. I take pride in that. It is quite old-fashioned to think that to be a top coach you have to be a top player. Coaching is a craft in its own right.’

Peet, as you can imagine, has read plenty of books on leadership and management. So, which sports coaches does he most admire? ‘It means a lot to me, this question,’ he admits after a long pause.

‘I like coaches who have had sustained success like Sir Alex Ferguson, Bill Belichick (of New England Patriots), Phil Jackson (formerly of Chicago Bulls).

‘I work closely on myself with a life coach called Craig White. He opens my eyes to different ways of thinking. In the last five years, my coaching has become a bit more mindful. Our players do a lot of yoga, meditation and breathing work.’

With Wigan third in the Super League and into their first Challenge Cup final in five years, Peet’s methods are clearly paying off.