Phil Gould has joined the chorus in calling for a statue of South Sydney legend George Piggins, saying nobody was more deserving of the honour than the former Rabbitohs chairman.
The Rabbitohs broke ground earlier this year on their new facility at Heffron Park in Maroubra, which will see the club relocate training and administrative operations away from Redfern.
“The plan is for us to be in the building and operating our football, commercial and administration programs by the end of 2022, well in time for the 2023 pre-season,” CEO Blake Solly said.
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There were reports from News Corp yesterday that a proposed statue of Piggins, who guided the club through the wilderness and back to the NRL following their expulsion, had been rejected by the club’s top brass.
Piggins’ backers will reportedly continue to fundraise and lobby for a sculpture to be built outside Redfern Oval instead.
Bulldogs boss Gould, who knows the Super League war better than most, said that few would be more deserving.
“I’m sure George Piggins would never want a statue in his honour,” Gould wrote.
“He wouldn’t expect it. It will mean little to him if it never happened. But if anyone, from any NRL club, ever deserved such recognition, George Piggins is definitely worthy.”
https://twitter.com/PhilGould15/status/1467701261227094021
The club’s stance is that no one person should be bigger than the club as they look to construct a ‘Walk of Fame’ type display at the new site.
It’s a fair point. Whilst Piggins was a key man in the survival of the Rabbitohs, the club already named their best and fairest medal after him – and in terms of on-field contributions, Piggins, while great, is well behind others.
Piggins only played in one first grade premiership win despite being at the club through one of their golden eras in the late 60s and early 70s. Elwyn Walters was the preferred hooker, with Piggins only getting his chance in 1971 due to the former being injured.
Then there’s the legendary Clive Churchill, of course, who won five premierships as a player and another four as a coach.
Still, many argue that without Piggins, there would be no Rabbitohs today.
Debate over a statue of Piggins has raged on for more than a decade – back in 2011, Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore knocked back a proposal that would have seen the former Rabbitohs supremo immortalised at no cost to the taxpayer.
After the Rabbitohs were bought in 2006 by actor Russell Crowe and businessman Peter Holmes a Court, their former leader stayed away for nearly a decade.
Piggins was coaxed into attending the 2014 decider, which Souths won, some 471 weeks after he’d last seen the Bunnies play live.
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