Peacock eager to go out on a high with Rhinos treble

LEEDS RHINOS veteran Jamie Peacock extended his Super League Dream Team record to 11 selections and admitted: “I know I could go do another year.”
Leeds Rhinos Jamie Peacock amuses his fellow Super League Dream Team players yesterday at Hotel Football, Manchester (Picture:Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com).Leeds Rhinos Jamie Peacock amuses his fellow Super League Dream Team players yesterday at Hotel Football, Manchester (Picture:Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com).
Leeds Rhinos Jamie Peacock amuses his fellow Super League Dream Team players yesterday at Hotel Football, Manchester (Picture:Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com).

The former England captain, who retires at the end of the season to become Hull KR football manager, was named again in the team of the season yesterday.

Prop Peacock, 37, was one of four Leeds players included along with full-back Zak Hardaker, England centre Kallum Watkins and Australian prop Adam Cuthbertson, who was actually picked at loose forward.

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The side is selected by a panel of media and broadcasters in a secret ballot and, this year, also included a brace of Huddersfield Giants – prolific 27-try winger Jermaine McGillvary and captain Danny Brough – plus a couple of Castleford Tigers in scrum-half Luke Gale, a revelation since joining from Bradford last autumn, and centre Michael Shenton.

However, it was Peacock’s latest inclusion which caught the eye as the evergreen forward once more proved his remarkable longevity – he was first picked when still operating as a wide-running second-row with Bradford in 2000 – in arguably one of the toughest of sports.

Having helped Leeds retain the Challenge Cup last month and then win the League Leaders’ Shield in dramatic style at Huddersfield on Friday, he could round off his glittering career with a treble as the West Yorkshire club bid for the Super League title. They host defending champions St Helens in Friday’s semi-fina.

Asked if being further garlanded has prompted him to wonder if he could play on in 2016, Peacock responded: “I could go around again – I don’t think there’s any question about that. I know for sure I could go around again. I know what works for me and I can’t see me being 38 being any different to me being 37.

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“It has gone through my mind, but I want to finish this year and move onto a new challenge.

“I’m choosing to retire and I’m pleased about that. I’d love to go out on a high, but there’s three other teams standing in our way.

“I’ll be doing everything in my power (on Friday) to make sure we get to Old Trafford and have a crack at doing that again.”

On his own form, Peacock added: “I always try to play consistently, give eight or nine out of 10 performance every week and I think I’ve done that again this year. My aim this season was to play well in the games that matter.

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“When you look at our games in the Challenge Cup I think I’ve delivered in that and also played well against the teams I think are the best sides really – the top five or six. I feel my performances in those matches have been as good as they have ever. I’ve enjoyed this year again.”

It is testimony to the calibre of those displays that he saw off some stellar competition with front-row currently a position of genuine quality in Super League.

“I think if you look at the way (Castleford’s) Andy Lynch and Grant Millington have played and also (Warrington’s) Chris Hill, it is fantastic and shows the strength in this comp,” he added,

“Having lost probably our best prop James Graham Down Under and Sam Burgess who plays numerous positions – prop, back-row and loose forward – prop is really strong now here in Super League. As for my most memorable Dream Team, I think it has to be the first in 2000.

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“I’d had my breakthrough year in 1999 but there was no second season syndrome from there – and Jason Robinson was in it which shows how long ago it was.”

St Helens’ Dewsbury-born Alex Walmsley – shortlisted for the Steve Prescott Man of Steel award with Cuthbertson and Hardaker – is the other prop in the Dream Team, the former Batley Bulldog making his debut in it after a fine campaign, which should also end with him making his England debut against New Zealand.

Meanwhile, after their last-second heroics to win at Huddersfield – ending a three-game losing streak – to secure top spot, Peacock admits Leeds are buoyed in readiness for facing Saints.

“We were looking like the Dog and Gun Second team with the intensity we had in training before that (Giants) game,” he smiled, Rhinos having been down to eight fit players for practice at one point. “But it’s been spiked up again since what happened Friday and I think the lads have got a lot of focus and energy back into what we’re doing.”

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Super League Dream Team 2015: Hardaker (Leeds); McGillvary (Huddersfield), Watkins (Leeds), Shenton (Castleford), Burgess (Wigan); Brough (Huddersfield), Gale (Castleford); Walmsley (St Helens), Roby (St Helens), Peacock (Leeds), Taia (Catalans), Farrell (Wigan), Cuthbertson (Leeds).