1. George Peponis was born on Georgios Peponis Greek: ; on 3 September 1953 and is a Greek Australian company director and former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s and 1980s.
20 Facts About George Peponis
1. 2.
George Peponis captained the Bulldogs and New South Wales, and played in eight Test matches for Australia between 1978 and 1980, captaining the side on five consecutive occasions between 1979 and 1980.
3.
George Peponis emigrated with his family to Australia when he was just 18 months old in 1954 like many other Greeks in those days.
4.
George Peponis attended Sydney's Canterbury Boys' High School where he played rugby union and was a Canterbury rugby league junior with the St George Dragons JRLFC at Clemton Park before being graded in 1973 to the under-23's side in which year he played in the Preliminary Final against the Balmain Tigers.
5.
George Peponis started the 1974 season in reserve grade and that year debuted in first grade against South Sydney when Barry Phillis was injured.
6.
George Peponis stayed in first grade for that year's finals series including Canterbury's Grand Final 1974 loss to the Eastern Suburbs.
7.
George Peponis made his state debut for the New South Wales Blues in 1976 and would go on to play seven games for his state up till 1980.
8.
In 1978, George Peponis was appointed Canterbury's first-grade captain and played in the Preliminary Semi-Final against the Parramatta Eels.
9.
George Peponis would go on to captain Canterbury on 71 occasions between 1978 and 1982.
10.
George Peponis made his Test debut for Australia in 1978 in the first Test against New Zealand.
11.
George Peponis was vying for the Australian hooker position with Max Krilich and Queensland's Johnny Lang and would in his career regularly compete against Krilich for representative honours.
12.
George Peponis was selected for the 1978 Kangaroo tour on which he played two Tests, four minor tour matches and scored six tries.
13.
George Peponis led Canterbury to the 1979 Grand Final loss against St George.
14.
George Peponis was elected Chairman of the Bulldogs Football Club following the club's salary cap scandal in 2002 when they were penalised 37 competition points and fined $500,000 for systematically breaching the cap.
15.
In 2007, George Peponis was still the chairman and was in charge when personally difficult decisions were made which saw his former 1980 Grand Final teammates Garry Hughes and Steve Mortimer forced out of their positions with the club.
16.
George Peponis was named at hooker in the 'Berries to Bulldogs 70 Year Team of Champions' in 2004.
17.
George Peponis is a Life Member of the Football Club and in 2007 was inducted into the Bulldogs Ring of Champions.
18.
Dr George Peponis was Chairman of the NSW Rugby League from 2012 to 2022.
19.
George Peponis was elected as a Director of ClubsNSW in 2017 and was appointed to the position of deputy chair in 2018.
20.
George Peponis was elected as Chairman of the ClubsNSW Board after Peter Newell resigned his position in June 2019.