George Piggins

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George Piggins
Personal information
Full nameGeorge Leslie Piggins
Born (1944-10-14) 14 October 1944 (age 79)
Playing information
Height165 cm (5 ft 5 in)
PositionHooker
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1967–78 South Sydney 118 6 0 0 18
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1974–76 New South Wales 2 0 0 0 0
1975 Australia 3 0 0 0 0
Coaching information
Club
Years Team Gms W D L W%
1986–90 South Sydney 120 61 6 53 51
Source: [1][2][3]

George Leslie Piggins AM (born 14 October 1944) is an Australian rugby league personality. He is a former player, coach and administrator of the South Sydney Rabbitohs club. Following their exclusion from the National Rugby League premiership at the end of the Super League war, Piggins also successfully led the Rabbitohs' battle for re-inclusion in the NRL in the early 2000s. Since 2003, the "George Piggins Medal" has been awarded annually to South Sydney's player of the year.

Playing career

Of

1977
.

Post playing Piggins worked as a truck driver,[4] eventually starting his own trucking business. He also invented a device which increased the rate at which trucks could be unloaded. His invention and business were later sold for millions of dollars.[5]

Coaching career

In

1986, Piggins took over as first grade coach and was awarded the Coca-Cola Rugby League Coach-of-the-Year award for taking South Sydney to the finals in his rookie year, and just missing out (by one point) on winning the minor premiership.[6] Piggins at the time gave tribute to Phil Gould for his contribution to the development of the team and himself as coach. Piggins won a trip for two to Atlanta to study American football
as part of his award.

With the work-rate of a relatively lightweight but extremely tough forward pack containing

Manly which Souths won, due to a breach of replacement rules. 1989 saw the Rabbitohs as the undisputed pace-setters until the finals, winning twelve games in a row through a watertight defence and skilful, solid backline play. 1990, however, was a disaster as Boyle, Andrews and Chisholm succumbed to injury and Roberts, who by this time was Souths best player, was lost to Manly. The Rabbitohs' watertight defence became incredibly thin and the team won only two games all season – actually conceding more tries in their last five games than in the entire 1989 home-and-away season. Piggins was axed as coach at the end of that year to be replaced by Frank Curry
in 1990, but stayed involved by becoming Chairman of the Leagues Club.

Administration

In 2000 Piggins was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to Australia's international standing in the sport of rugby league.

Due to the National Rugby League's plans for a fourteen-team competition, the South Sydney club was excluded from the NRL premiership commencing with the 2000 season. Piggins was the chairman of the South Sydney club during the legal battle against the NRL for re-inclusion in the premiership, which was achieved during 2001. He led the marches and even put up $3.2 million of his own money in a mortgage on the club's block of units adjacent to the leagues club.

2002. At the start of that year his book, Never Say Die: The Fight to save the Rabbitohs was published. Its title refers to the persistence needed to keep the South Sydney club in the top-level competition. In 2002, Piggins was further honoured as a Member of the Order of Australia
"for service to Rugby League football as an administrator, coach and player, and to the South Sydney community".

Also in 2002 he was replaced as chairman of the club by the lawyer who led the battle with News for re-inclusion, Nick Pappas.[8]

Since 2003, the "George Piggins Medal" has been awarded by the South Sydney club to the Rabbitohs' best and fairest player of the season.[9]

With the club's vote to allow Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes à Court's private ownership of the Rabbitohs in 2006, Piggins walked away from the South Sydney Club, as he didn't approve of what the new ownership represented.

On October 1 2014, Piggins announced that he would be attending his first Souths game in nearly a decade, which was the

ANZ Stadium. His sister, Kim Piggins married Greek-Australian businessman and Souths reserve grade player, Peter Anasta who would become the parents of first grade footballer, Braith Anasta and Piggins' nephew.[10]

References

  1. ^ yesterdayshero.com.au
  2. ^ rugbyleagueproject.org
  3. ^ George Piggins stats at rugbyleagueproject.com
  4. ^ Masters, Roy (15 May 2009). "Life after the Rabbits: Piggins the litigator kicking plenty of goals". League HQ (smh.com.au). Fairfax Digital. Retrieved 30 November 2009.
  5. ISBN 1-86403-361-4
    .
  6. ^ Tait, Paul (24 September 1986). "Award to Piggins". The Sydney Morning Herald. Australia. p. 52. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  7. ^ Chesterton, Ray (30 May 2008). "George Piggins is finished". The Daily Telegraph. Australia: News Limited. Retrieved 30 November 2009.
  8. ^ Walter, Brad (8 November 2010). "Pappas gears up for News rematch". The Sydney Morning Herald. Australia: Fairfax Media. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
  9. ^ "Club records". rabbitohs.com.au. South Sydney Rabbitohs. 2007. Archived from the original on 19 March 2012. Retrieved 30 November 2009.
  10. ^ "'I'd shake hands': George Piggins to bury Russell Crowe hatchet". Sydney Morning Herald.

Sources

Further reading

Sporting positions
Preceded by
Ron Willey
1983−1985
 Coach

South Sydney
1986−1990 		Succeeded by
Frank Curry
1991−1993
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