Former Fremantle player Brett Peake counts 2017 premiership with Bunbury Bulldogs as footy highlight

He’s played in two AFL grand finals, a WAFL decider, and 75 games at Fremantle, but WA footy legend Brett Peake counts a breakthrough senior premiership at the Bunbury Bulldogs as the highlight of his career. Peake, the son of East Fremantle and Geelong legend Brian, spent five years on the list at the Dockers before moving to St Kilda, where he played in both the drawn 2010 grand final and the replay. But it was the wet and woolly day at Hands Oval in 2017 on which he won his first-ever senior premiership that he counts as the best of his illustrious career. Featuring as a guest on The West Australian’s Hard Ball Gets podcast, Peake revealed becoming a premiership player at the Dogs stood out above any of his 118 AFL or 121 WAFL games. “Winning your first senior premiership, which was with the Bunbury Bulldogs in ’17, was the highlight,” he said. “I was fortunate enough to win a premiership with the Bunbury footy club and play three years there.” Having joined the club at the start of the season, the 34-year-old kicked one goal in a relatively quiet outing, as his Bulldogs beat Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault 10.8 (68) to 2.6 (18) in dismal conditions. It brought to an end a 16-year premiership drought for the SWFL powerhouse, the second-longest in its history, and a personal drought for Peake, who had lost a grand final with East Fremantle as well as the famous 2010 defeat to Collingwood. He left the Bulldogs after three seasons, 55 games and 159 goals, but hasn’t hung up the boots just yet. At the start of this season he joined perennial wooden-spooners the Albany Sharks, who had won just two games in nine years of the Great Southern Football League, leading to an improbable first finals appearance in 2021, with 39 goals to his name. “While my body can still play footy I still enjoy it,” Peake said. “The best part of it is giving back to different clubs in different regions. “I had a couple of games up in the Pilbara with the Dampier Sharks because Steven Dodd, a former teammate at Fremantle and East Fremantle, was coaching them. And then an opportunity came up to play for the (Albany) Sharks.”