George Piggins fears the South Sydney Rabbitohs will move to Perth
GEORGE Piggins still recalls the night Kerry Packer looked him in the eye at a Double Bay cafe and told him anyone who thought there was money in football clubs or racehorses was mad.
Piggins agreed, so when Hollywood star Russell Crowe was trying to roll out the red carpet to buy Souths 10 years later, he relayed the late media mogul's advice.
Sitting in Crowe's $20 million waterfront Woolloomooloo apartment back in late 2005, Piggins delivered the same frank assessment to the multi-millionaire actor.
The trouble was, Crowe didn't want to listen. Piggins now fears the club he marched 80,000 people from Redfern Oval to the Town Hall steps in Sydney to save during the Super League war could be sold off to the Central Coast, or worse, Perth.
"We had a meeting, me and Russell, at his place," Piggins said. "Unfortunately he thought it was going to be so easy to make money out of a football club and he listened to people who didn't know.
"I told him I remembered the night Kerry told me: 'There's no money in football. Anyone owning a football team or racehorse is mad.' If there were a few more Kerry Packers around it would be better. Kerry was interested in sport and he put his money where his mouth was.
"Russell thought there was money in football and sport but I'm yet to see anyone make a lot of money out of football, other than the modern-day players."
Piggins cited the Penrith Panthers, where general manager Phil Gould has asked the club's four biggest stars to waive a clause giving them a pay rise when the salary cap increases, as an example of how tough clubs are doing it.
"Look at Penrith - they're asking people to take pay cuts. It tells you it's a hard business and you're not in it to make money," he said.
The South Sydney patriarch, who always feared the day would come when Crowe tired of putting his hand in his pocket to prop up Souths, said the actor had only half finished the job at Redfern.
"(Crowe) more or less said he had a job to do and I feel like that job's still not finished," Piggins said.
"South Sydney showed vast improvement this year under Michael Maguire and looked to be on the right track.
"But now with all of this speculation around it's just going to create instability. They've got players there on million-dollar contracts and they're going to be wondering whether they're going to get paid or not.
"It's going to be a little bit unsettled there for a while until we really find out what (Crowe) is doing.
"No matter what happens now, if Russell doesn't hold on to the club, I think it's destined to move somewhere else.
"I hope it comes back to Moore Park, but my fear is it will end up in Perth or on the Central Coast."
According to Piggins, Crowe owes the South Sydney faithful an explanation about how the sale of the club will work.
"The fans should get a say. I remember asking him five or six years ago what was going to happen when he didn't want the club any more and he said, 'That's my business.'"
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...l-move-to-perth/story-e6frexnr-1226519161787?
