Mason and Laura Peatling who are expecting their first baby in April. Photo: @captured.by.chop
By the time Mason and Laura Peatling start joking about what their perfect afterlife might look like, a conversation sparked by watching Netflix movie Eternity, a fair bit of Wollongong
has already made the cut.
Sunshine would be essential. A handful of favourite local spots. The rhythm of life they have discovered in the Illawarra. On this particular morning, that conversation is unfolding at one
of those places — Lili J — where the couple often come for coffee and a walk with their Havanese dog Beans. Before sitting down, Mason quietly grabs an extra cushion to make sure Laura is comfortable.
It is a small gesture, but one that says plenty about a relationship that has already packed a decade of life into it. The Peatlings have been married for 10 years now and in just a few weeks their story will take another major turn when they welcome their first child.
For many Illawarra sports fans, Mason Peatling is best known as one of the Hawks’ most physical and committed players — a relentless forward who previously won an NBL championship with Melbourne United before arriving in Wollongong and becoming part of the Hawks’ own title-winning squad.
But away from the intensity of professional basketball, the foundation of his life has always been far simpler. It is Laura.
Their story began almost by accident when two Melbourne teenagers found themselves on the same basketball trip to the United States. Laura had not even been meant to go.
Mason was part of a travelling team hoping to attract the attention of American college coaches. Laura’s brother was on the squad and she joined the tour at the last minute as her parents helped support the group during the three-week trip. Neither of them expected the journey to change their lives.
One of their earliest memories still makes them laugh. On a flight during the trip, Laura happened to be seated next to Mason and felt the need to warn him she was a nervous flyer.
“I said to him, ‘I’m really sorry if I grab your leg during turbulence, I’m not groping you, I’m just a nervous flyer’,” she laughs.
At the time, it was just an awkward moment between two young travellers. But the pair kept talking.
“There was nothing romantic happening then,” Mason says. “We were just getting to know each other.”
But when they returned home to Melbourne and were no longer seeing each other every day, something shifted.
“We realised pretty quickly there might be something more there,” Laura says.
Mason and Laura embrace after the Hawks’ NBL Championship win at the WEC last year. Photo: James O’Donohue Photography.
What followed was a decision that raised more than a few eyebrows. Still teenagers and only about a year into their relationship, the pair chose to get married before Mason left for college basketball in the United States.
For Mason, the idea of moving halfway across the world without the person who had quickly become his biggest supporter simply didn’t feel right.
He describes Laura as smart, kind and fiercely loyal, with a sense of humour that mirrors his own. More than anything, he says, she is one of the strongest people he knows — a quality
that has shaped their life together from the very beginning.
The move to America soon after tested their commitment. Living thousands of kilometres from home, often on little money and navigating the pressures of college basketball, the early years were far from glamorous. But those experiences forged something deeper.
“When you get married young, you sort of grow up together,” Mason says. “You go through all those early life experiences side by side. By the time you come out the other end, you’ve built this level of trust where you almost see the world the same way.”
Laura has watched Mason play basketball through almost every stage of his life, from junior competitions in Melbourne to college basketball in the United States and now the NBL.
That long perspective has made her both his biggest supporter and, at times, his most honest critic.
“She actually knows the game really well,” Mason laughs. “So when she has an observation after a game, it’s usually pretty bang on.”
Occasionally, she also makes herself heard.
Earlier this season, when Mason famously hit a corner three-pointer during a Hawks game and the referees incorrectly said he was out of bounds, Laura was certain the shot should count and yelled from the courtside seats for Mason to ask coach Tatum to challenge the call. When the officials confirmed the coach’s challenge, Mason glanced into the crowd to see his wife celebrating the decision.
“I looked over and thought, ‘Alright … she’s one-and-zero on coach’s challenges’,” he laughs.
Mason playing at the WEC during the last season. He was awarded the Coaches’ Player Award at the club’s recent annual dinner. Photo: Joel Armstrong/Illawarra Hawks.
Away from the spotlight of professional sport, the Peatlings prefer a quieter rhythm of life — exploring the coastline, finding favourite local food spots and enjoying the routines that come with being together for so long.
Like many players and couples before them, they’ve found something different in the Illawarra.
“At a lot of clubs the word ‘family’ gets thrown around,” Mason says. “But here it actually feels that way.”
That sense of belonging has become even clearer in recent months as the couple prepare to welcome their first child.
Their baby is due in April and instead of heading overseas during the off-season as many professional players do, Mason has chosen to stay in Wollongong and play locally in the NBL1 competition. It is a decision shaped as much by life as by basketball.
Without immediate family nearby, the couple once thought they might return to Melbourne before starting a family. But the support they have experienced in the Illawarra changed their thinking.
“When we had our baby shower, half the room was people who had travelled from home,” Mason says.
“But the other half were people from here — people we see every day. That was really special.”
Laura smiles. “You find your people,” she says.
For a couple who married young and built their life across continents, the future has rarely followed a predictable script.
But as they prepare to become parents, the uncertainty feels less daunting than it once might have.
“We just want to raise good people,” Mason says. “People with integrity. People comfortable being themselves.”
And if their imaginary afterlife game is anything to go by, the Illawarra will remain part of that story.
After all, it is already home to some of their happiest memories — morning walks with Beans, quiet coffees at Lili J and the routines that now make this corner of the coast feel like their place in the world.
In a few weeks, those routines will include a newborn.
And if the next chapter of the Peatlings’ story unfolds anything like the first, it will be one they face the same way they always have.
Together.
