It is with great sadness we advise the Sydney Swans family that yesterday our dear friend Tony Peek lost his brave battle with cancer.

On behalf of the Board, executive, staff, coaches, past and present players, and indeed everyone at, or associated with our club, we extend our deepest sympathies to Tony’s family on the loss of a husband, father, grandfather, son and brother.

Especially to his beloved wife Anne, their two children Matthew and Amy, and grandchildren Billie and Dexter.

Tony was a hugely respected and admired figure within Australian football circles throughout the country but nowhere more so than at the Sydney Swans.

Within the club he has many extremely close friendships. Some dating back three decades.

Many of the qualities that we admired in Tony were shaped in his formative years. Tony was the eldest of five children who were essentially brought up by their mother. Mrs Peek worked fulltime to support the family and at a very early age Tony became a father-figure to his younger siblings. He was the rock that supported his mother and guided his younger brother and sisters.

Tony, or Peeky as he was universally known, played football in winter and basketball in summer.

At the tender age of 19 he was president of his local football club and coach of one of its junior teams.

After year 12 in 1969, Tony started as a cadet journalist with Chadstone Progress part of Progress Press Ltd. He went on to be editor of one of its biggest suburban newspapers, the Waverley Gazette. Progress Press eventually became part of News Limited.

In 1974 Tony received a telegram from the Melbourne Sun News Pictorial inviting him to an interview. They were impressed with his writing and felt he could have a future with them. He gleefully accepted their offer.

He worked a couple of years as a general reporter and was heading down the road to be a political reporter but recognised his true love was in sport.

When a vacancy became available he moved to being a sports reporter. He covered the football during the winter and the tennis during the summer.

He stayed with the Sun until 1979 and for the next two years worked in sports marketing. In 1981 Tony accepted a position with Tennis Australia as media manager.

He was Media and Marketing Manager with Tennis Australia until 1989. It was an exciting time. Tony worked on the 1983/86 Davis Cups and the first two Australian Opens held at what is now known as Rod Laver Arena.

Many people probably don’t realise the extraordinary contribution Tony made to another sport.

Through Anne’s family he was introduced to baseball in the early 1970s.

He went on to play baseball but also serve as a Board member and President for over 22 years with the Waverley Baseball Club. Tony was instrumental in launching the club into the first National Baseball League and forming the Waverley Reds. The Reds won the inaugural championship in 1989-90. They played at Waverley Park to average crowds of almost 5000 and set a single game attendance for the league in 1992 of 11,444. Tony was president of the Australian Baseball League for four years.

This year the Waverley Baseball Club honoured him by naming the main club house the Tony Peek Pavilion.

In 1989 Tony accepted the role of Media Manager with the AFL working hand-in-glove with Ross Oakley. Within the next few years the title would be upgraded to General Manager – Communications.

For the next 29 years Tony had a unique insight into the machinations of the development of the AFL competition and the game as a whole.

There is no doubt Tony was a true AFL visionary.

His contribution to the development of Australian football in Queensland and New South Wales is incalculable.

In 1993 when the then VFL under Ross Oakley’s stewardship courageously decided to champion one last effort to establish a team in Sydney the situation was beyond dire. The support for the Swans and the game in general in Sydney from the other clubs, the Sydney sporting establishment, the football media, and indeed some within the VFL (now AFL) was at best luke warm.

From the outset it was apparent Tony was someone who genuinely believed in the importance of winning this massive battle that was to be fought on so many different fronts.

During 1996, the Swans Board and the AFL Commission/senior management had expressed very differing views on the progress of the development of the game throughout NSW and the ACT.

From what was a “robust” meeting emerged a commitment to undertake the first ever proper review of the game in Sydney and throughout NSW/ACT. This report was tabled in 1998 and laid the platform for where the game finds itself today.

Simultaneously Tony was appointed Head of Strategy and Planning with a particular focus on NSW and Queensland.

There wasn’t an issue including the game development review, facilities, the configuration of Homebush as an oval, the push to develop an academy and many other critical matters where Tony wasn’t either a confidant or an adviser to the Swans. Or both.

His grasp of the big issues but also the minute details was extraordinary.

Notwithstanding his support for our aspirations never once did he show any disloyalty to the AFL or any of its senior officers; never did he make sweeping, big noting statements; there were never late-night calls. Everything was done above board without any guarantees other than “I will review whatever it is and get back to you”.

In short, Tony balanced his obligations to the AFL with his own views on the best way of identifying issues and solving problems, together with constant demands and challenges from those charged with running various aspects of the northern markets, with absolute aplomb professionalism.

It's doubtful anyone else could have achieved what he did.

Sometimes between the mid- and late-1990s Tony became a rusted-on Swans supporter. When questioned earlier this year how it happened, he said that he “fell in love with some of the players”, these included Paul Kelly, Michael O’Loughlin and Adam Goodes.

“And he admired the club’s resilience and passion”.

Given the enormity of his contribution to the development of the game in NSW and to our club there had been regular discussion for some years about awarding Tony Sydney Swans Life Membership. The feeling was however, that it was probably unfair to all concerned while Tony was still actively involved at the AFL.

On Saturday 14^th, July at Il Duca Restaurant in East Melbourne, Tony joined a small group of his closest friends at the Swans for lunch.

In Andrew Pridham’s absence the function was hosted by Andrew Ireland and attended by Richard Colless, John Longmire, Tom Harley, Dean Moore, Jason Ball, Kinnear Beatson, Michael O’Loughlin, and Adam Goodes.

Richard spoke briefly about Tony’s contribution to the game in general and to the Swans specifically.

And then Andrew surprised Tony by presenting him with Life Membership. Tony was extremely delighted and proud.

No one knows how many Swans games Tony attended but nobody can recall one where he wasn’t sitting unobtrusively at the back of a box quietly watching the game unfold.

In a biography about Bob Paisley, the legendary Liverpool manager written by Ian Herbert called “Quiet Genius” he quotes Susan Cain, a world authority on leadership research and theory.

She argues strongly that western culture undervalues the traits and potential of quieter/less outwardly self-confident people.

She says we reward and admire the swaggering self-assured and bullish person. And believe that they are the most capable.

She says more often than not the opposite is true.

Those people who listen and absorb are usually those who get more done with less fuss.

The point of this is that in a world of self-promotion this enduring quiet, unassuming, steadfast, honourable and extraordinarily knowledgeable person did as much to get the AFL to its position it occupies today as anybody. Ever. 

Tony, on behalf of all of us, thank you for your friendship and for the value you have added and as importantly the values that you have instilled into the game and club we love.