Soccer greats Joey Peters, Craig Johnston to be inducted into Sport NSW Hall of Champions

The Matildas pioneer, who grew up in The Riverina in southern NSW but now calls Belmont home, is one of six athletes set to join 388 sporting greats at a NSW Champions of Sport ceremony at Darling Harbour on November 28.

The Hunter's Liverpool soccer legend Craig Johnston will also be inducted along with Lake Macquarie Paralympian Liesl Tesch AM (wheelchair basketball and para sailing).

The other inductees are Brad Dalton (basketball), Phil Kearns AM (rugby union) and Prashanth Sellathurai (gymnastics).

"I'm proud of having blue blood," Peters told the Newcastle Herald on Thursday.

"I've won premierships and national titles in the blue colours in junior days and also schoolgirls, so I'm proud to be in the Hall of Champions.

"Obviously, it's been a long time since I've played now so it's also good for women's football to get more recognition and just something for my kids and grandkids to be proud of as well. It's a nice occasion."

Peters, 43, was a trailblazer in women's soccer both nationally and internationally.

She made 110 appearances for Australia, played at the 1999, 2003 and 2007 FIFA Women's World Cups as well as the 2004 Athens Olympics and was a foundation player for the Newcastle Jets in the women's national league.

Peters, who now works as a painter, was also one of the first Australians to play women's soccer professionally overseas with seasons in the United States and Brazil.

"At the moment, I feel like my biggest achievement is being able to get into life after sport because that's been one of the biggest challenges," Peters said.

"[The occasion] brings up a lot of emotions for me about my career, but also looking back to as a child being able to grow up in country NSW in The Riverina and just being able to play seven different sports in the one year.

"For me, I didn't give that enough credit as to why I was able to go on to achieve what I did. And, obviously, more accolades for women's football. It feels like the more women's football grows the value of what we've done in our history becomes greater as well, so it's nice to be proud of myself as well and what I was able to do."

Johnston grew up in Lake Macquarie and was the first Australian to play for Liverpool in the English First Division. He achieved more than any Australian footballer of his generation, making 271 appearances for Liverpool across seven years. The midfielder had victories in five League Championships, the European Cup, the FA Cup, two League Cups and two Charity Shields.

In the 1983-1984 season, Johnston was a part of the Liverpool team that claimed the treble - League Champions, European Cup and the League Cup.

Tesch is a seven-time Paralympian. She competed with the Australian women's wheelchair basketball team at five consecutive Games between 1992 and 2008 then sailing in 2012 and 2016.

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