Peter Knights (born 30 March 1952) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for in the Victorian Football League (VFL). After retiring as a player, he was appointed the inaugural coach of the and later returned to coach Hawthorn during the 1990s. Knights is regarded as one of the greatest centre half-backs to have ever played Australian rules football, thrilling and endearing himself to spectators with his fair play and superb skills, most notably his spectacular high marking and prodigious torpedo punt kicking. He was one of the inaugural inductees when the Australian Football Hall of Fame was launched in 1996, and was appointed the eighth Legend in Hawthorn's Hall of Fame in 2017. Although considered unlucky not to win the game's highest individual honour, the Brownlow Medal - having twice finished runner-up in the vote count - Knights was nonetheless part of three VFL premiership teams during a highly successful era for the Hawks. It was fortuitous for Hawthorn that Knights' career coincided with that of fellow Hawthorn and AFL champion Leigh Matthews, with both making their senior VFL debuts in the same year (1969) and also finishing their careers the same year (1985). However, while Matthews' robust physique enabled him to play well over 300 games, Knights - who was no less courageous in going for the ball - struggled to reach 250 games over the same time period due to the many serious injuries he suffered over the course of his playing career. Playing career Early Years Knights was one of two children born to Lindsay Thomas Knights and his wife Fay, the other child being his sister Alison. They were raised on the family dairy farm near the town of Longwarry, situated over 80 kilometres south-east of Melbourne. Knights played football for Longwarry - which at the time was in the West Gippsland Football League - and attended Drouin High School, where in his final year (1970) he was named School Captain. However, due to his busy schedule of constantly commuting to and from Melbourne for training and games with Hawthorn, Knights was unable to attain the academic grades he wanted. Subsequently, Hawthorn coach John Kennedy sr. suggested that Knights repeat his year 12 studies at Camberwell High School. Upon Kennedy's passing in 2020, Knights reminisced fondly about that time: He [Kennedy] was very high up in the education department at that time, on