Integrity and respect: How Piggins and Heads earned their places in history

Integrity and respect.

Those two words were repeatedly used to describe George Piggins and Ian Heads as they became the latest inductees into the NRL Hall of Fame at a special event at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Piggins - a champion player who became the people’s champion after successfully leading South Sydney’s fight for re-instatement to the NRL - and Heads - a doyen of rugby league journalism - were inducted in the Contributors category.

Both have devoted their lives to rugby league – Piggins as a player, coach and administrator, and Heads, whose first sporting memory was watching Australia end a 30-year Ashes series drought at the SCG in 1950, as a great storyteller and mentor to so many who have reported on the game.

They also shared a willingness to stand up for their beliefs at great personal cost, with Piggins taking on the might of News Corp over the 1999 expulsion of Souths and Heads quitting his newspaper job over the coverage of the 100,000 strong march to protest it.

“At the conclusion of the 1999 season, Souths were unfairly expelled from the NRL competition,” former Rabbitohs halfback and coach Craig Coleman said.

“They wanted us to merge and give away 100 years of community spirit and tradition. George said, ‘no way, I'll bury the jumper’, and history was made.

“Our working-class hero not only started a major campaign rallying the public, but famously led two rallies. More than 150,000 people proudly marched up George Street to the steps of Sydney Town Hall, in probably the largest, strongest rally in sporting history.”

Piggins was a member of the team which won South Sydney's 20th premiership in 1971, coached the club to three finals series - including the 1989 minor premiership - in five seasons between 1986 and 1990, and was chairman from 1990 to 2003. 

Coleman, who played under Piggins, recounted how Norm Provan and Arthur Summons famously said while presenting the Dally M awards that Piggins “not only saved South Sydney but he saved the game”.

According to veteran broadcaster Alan Jones, it was an “ugly, dirty and nasty” battle against more ruthless opponents than Piggins had faced in his 112-game career after debuting as South Sydney player 546 in 1967.

“Private investigators were somehow put on to George and Nolene, and Nolene’s bins were searched. God knows why. We don't know what it was about, and it was horrific,” Jones said.

“However, we persisted with the great behemoths of media, and we lost, but we kept on going. In two protests down George Street, 150,000 people marched to support us … they were extraordinary scenes.

“Eventually, we got a couple of lawyers to go pro bono, because we couldn't afford to pay the best lawyers in town, in the final challenge against News Limited, and we were there, in the front-row, when victory was accorded to us, and South Sydney were back.

“George Piggins was at the vanguard of those extraordinary efforts, and at that time, when we needed more money, George mortgaged his house and that was the security in order to gain more funds.

“The psychological and emotional toll was enormous - one man facing all of this and a negative world outside, unable to appreciate the history that South Sydney had shown all those years ago, which was about to be obliterated.

“So today when we see, pleasingly, on the premiership table, Souths are right up at the top, they are well coached, well resourced, and so on, I can say to you that there would be no South Sydney if it were not for the man we are honouring here, George Piggins.”

Piggins' nephew Braith Anasta, a promising Rabbitohs junior forced to find another club after Souths were kicked out of the NRL, gave an insight into the fighting qualities of his uncle, along with the toll it took on him and wife Nolene.

“We all saw it first-hand; just how stoic and resilient and stubborn, which George is, tenacious, competitive, just the loyalty and the do it at all costs to save the club of South Sydney,” Anasta said.

“There's no one else in the world that could have done what he did to save the great club of South Sydney.

“Just to sit and see what Nolene and George sacrificed - both financially and emotionally - and the way they just kept powering through it was quite remarkable, just like his footy career.

“For all of us watching, it wasn't easy, but to see him rise to the top and just pull that off was spectacular. It really was and it is something we will admire him for, forever.”

Former Kangaroos team-mate Mick Cronin was among those to join Piggins in the march against South Sydney's expulsion due to a criteria aimed at culling the number of NRL teams to 14 after the Super League war.

A Hall of Fame inductee in 2008, Cronin paid tribute to Piggins and Heads at Wednesday's lunch, which was also attended by former Rabbitohs greats Ron Coote and Bob McCarthy, and ex-Balmain hooker Ben Elias.

"I thought it would have been the saddest thing in the world if South Sydney got kicked out of the top, so South Sydney have got a lot to thank George for. We all have," Cronin said.

"I met Ian Heads in 1973 and the thing I found the most about him was respect, and if you give respect you get respect. That's the thing I worry about today between the players and the press whether there is that trust and respect.

"From my point of view he is a decent man, which is a big thing to say, and through all of his writings - the books and the articles he has written - I have never seen him do one thing to hurt rugby league.

"I sometimes watch today and think these people are making a living out of rugby league, but are they are really helping rugby league. You could never say that about Ian." 

Heads, who worked for Sydney’s Daily and Sunday Telegraphs, Rugby League Week, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Sun-Herald, as well as authoring more than 40 books, was also a man of principle.

Leading rugby league historian David Middleton told how he was among dozens of young journalists inspired and mentored by Heads over a long period.

"The words I most associate with Ian are integrity, decency and respect," Middleton said.

"I have seen Ian show great strength of character. He has backed his co-workers and stood up for his principles when necessary, even to the point of saying, 'no, Mr Packer, I'm supporting my staff'.

"In his career as a reporter and author, I have only known Ian to be completely fair and honest.

"He has covered tough stories - none bigger than the Super League war - but despite his pro-ARL stance, he never lost the respect of those who stood on the other side."

Among the biographies and histories of the game written by Heads were 'The History of Souths', published in 1985, which was followed in 2000 by 'South Sydney: Pride of the League'.

Heads and Piggins joined forces in 2002 to produce the book 'Never Say Die: The Fight to Save the Rabbitohs'.

"Both of these men are giants of the sport in their own unique way," Souths CEO Blake Solly said.

"There is arguably no taller figure in the history of the Rabbitohs than George, both on and off the field of play.

"He is widely regarded as one of the leading figures in the Rabbitohs' 115-year history due to the personal and professional sacrifices he made to keep the club alive and get us back in the competition.

"As many have said before, the Rabbitohs would not be alive today without the efforts of George, and of Nolene, throughout those fightback years.

"However, his contribution goes way beyond that when you combine that with his dogged determination as a player, his leadership as a head coach and chairman of the club.

"Ian also has a very, very special connection to Souths. He chronicled our history in numerous books and without that the history of the club would not be as well documented as it is today."  

Piggins attended the ceremony, alongside wife Nolene, while Heads was represented by his wife Joy and son Phil at the event.