Piggins sinks even lower as the Crowe flies

 
Tim Prentice Columnist

By , 20 Nov 2012

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    Piggins sinks even lower as the Crowe flies + enlarge image

    Former South Sydney Rugby League club chairman George Piggins. AAP Image/Dean Lewins

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    I have had more than enough of George Piggins and his tiresome rants about South Sydney. Like the proverbial dog and bone, George keeps yapping away, flatly refusing to let go, let alone bury it.

    This week’s revelation that Russell Crowe plans to sell his stake in the club set old George off again, creating more than a little panic among the South Sydney faithful.

    Old “rent-a-quote” George again seized the chance to sink the boot into Crowe and the Rabbitoh regime with a preposterous suggestion the club might have to relocate to the Central Coast, or even Perth, to remain viable.

    Errant nonsense, from where I sit. Souths are going nowhere.

    Through hard work and sound business practices, the once-skint Souths have re-emerged as one of the more affluent clubs in the competition with a rock solid sponsor base, a burgeoning membership, a powerful playing roster and a modern home ground.

    If Souths are vulnerable then heaven help the other clubs around the nation.

    They say that Piggins acts and speaks from the heart and that he harbours an unshakeable ardour for the famous old club he played for, coached at and ruled as president.

    Fair enough, but this is the ‘new and vastly improved’ South Sydney model which finished third in 2012 and pays its bills comfortably, even without assistance from the parent Leagues Club.

    Success has returned to the inner city club thanks largely to the personal input and drive from Crowe and his mates. George saved the club once but then found he could not do it a second time.

    I have never met or spoken to actor Crowe but I admire and appreciate the job that he and partner, Peter Holmes a Court, have done to turn the club around. It seems obvious they were the men Souths needed in a crisis.

    And, over a six year period, they came through with flying (red and green) colours.

    Sadly, Souths did not manage a premiership win in that time but the foundations have certainly been set for a golden run and I believe that winning the 2013 title is a distinct possibility.

    When reporters contacted George Piggins for a reaction to the Russell Crowe news, I say he should have acknowledged the club’s exciting revival and congratulated Hollywood’s second most famous rabbit (since B Bunny).

    Instead, Piggins kept the blinkers on and stumbled down the same old path which used to be lined with insistence but is now paved by ignorance.