Career: 1962-1970
Games: 126
Goals: 10
Brownlow Medal: 54 career votes
Guernsey numbers: 15
Height: 191cm
Weight: 83kg
DOB: 27 January 1942 (Debut: 20y 86d, last game: 28y 214d)

One of the saddest aspects of Australian Rules Football over the years has been the abrupt cessation of many brilliant careers through injury, most commonly to the knee. One prominent instance was St Kilda's Brian Gleeson, who won the Brownlow Medal, but was destined never to play another game again after an accident which occured during a pre-season practice match the following year. This might have been the fate of North Melbourne's Peter Steward, the club's equal best first year player for 1962, when he ruptured the cruciate ligament in his knee during his second season at Arden Street.

For a long time it appeared that his bright prospects had been permanently dimmed and that, like Gleeson, he would never take the field again. But fortunately for Peter, advances had been made in the matter of surgery by the early sixties, and the club's surgeon, John Grant, was able to carry out delicate but effective repair work on the damaged ligament, and hence revive his prospects of playing again.

Many North Melbourne people had resigned themselves to the fact that their high marking and mobile centre half-forward, turned centre half-back would not reappear in 1965, if at all.

They were taken by surprise, therefore, after training on one Thursday in the mid-season of 1964 to hear it announced that Steward had been named in the North line-up for the next match. The selectors had taken something of a gamble on his fitness, and had, on medical advice chose to include Steward in the side. Unfortunately, the gamble did not pay off and supporters had to adjust themselves to the idea of a long wait, preparatory to his eventual return in 1966, after spending the previous season umpiring.

His successful return to the game was a tribute to fine surgery and the perseverance of the player himself. He had set himself a resolute programme of exercises to design to strengthen his knee, and to keep it in good functioning condition. How well he perservered in this undertaking is borne out by his excellent play in subsequent seasons, and his gaining of a regular place in the interstate squad.

It will possibly come as a surprise to many people that Peter Steward, who was born on 27 January 1942, and later attended Geelong Grammar School, did not play football seriously until he started work. He began with the local Wandella Football Club in the Kerang District League, and then moved on to join Kerang, a member of the Northern District League. In those days, his position was at centre-half forward, with an occasional game at full-forward.

There was a chance that he might have played for Geelong, but North's scouts prevailed, and he signed with them. Those responsible certainly did their work well, because Peter soon established himself as the club's best find of the early sixties.

As the years passes, he consolidated his reputation until he had become by 1970 one of North's star players. Whether at centre half-back or more broadly as the mainspring of the side's overall defence, his superb anticipation, sure marking, and his thrilling clearing dashes, as well as his long, driving kicks combined to make him a real headache for his opponents.

To sustain his brilliance, he showed amazing consistency as week after week he turned in a polished and purposeful performance. By the end of the 1970 season, Steward had appeared in 126 day games during the course of which he had scored 10 goals. In addition, he played a total of nine night games as well.

His name was first heard of beyond the confines of his home State when he won his first VFL guernsey against Tasmania in 1966. From 1968 onwards, he became North Melbourne's main interstate representative, and came to be regarded as Victoria's centre half-back, representing his State on five occasions. This fine achievement was surpassed at the the 1969 Adelaide Carnival, when he was named as an All-Australia, and, although field positions were not designated among the 20 players selected, it seemed reasonable to consider him as the nation's number one centre half-back. Gaining this blazer gave Peter much satisfaction, and sustained the pattern established since 1958 by Aylett and Dugdale, and continued by Teasdale, of North's winning a blazer at successive carnivals.

For season 1969 he was promoted to the post of vice-captain, and continued in the following year. Normally, little interest accrues to this position. However, because his skipper, John Dugdale was prevented through injury from leading the team except in two matches, Steward was called upon to exercise the onerous, yet unsung role of acting captain on 20 occasions during 1970. To his credit, he handled those responsibilities in capable style.

Profile from 'The North Story'

VFL/AFL: 7341st player to appear
North Melbourne: 541st player to appear

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