NRL 2023 Hall of Fame inductees: Legendary journalist Ian Heads, South Sydney hero George Piggins

One of the most respected journalists in rugby league history was honoured with one of the game’s greatest honours, while South Sydney hero George Piggins was also inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Ian Heads was represented at the Hall of Fame function by his wife Joy and son Phil. NRL Imagery

Ian Heads’ life changed forever on a dreary day at the SCG more than 70 years ago.

Heads, then only seven, was among the crowd who braved the driving rain to watch Australia reclaim rugby league’s Ashes for the first time in 30 years, Ron Roberts scoring a famous try in the mud and slush in a 5-2 victory.

A love affair was born and it would spawn one of the greatest sport writing careers this country has seen. Heads became a rugby league encyclopaedia during a career in which he educated and informed a legion of the code’s supporters.

He spent many of those years writing for The Daily and Sunday Telegraphs in Sydney, where he was a giant for the paper. Few rugby league writers have garnered such respect, a quality which endures to this day.

“Ian Heads holds his head high in the world of journalism, a man of impeccable integrity, extraordinary knowledge, and absence of bias and a modesty that is most commendable,” media giant Alan Jones said on Wednesday as Heads was formally inducted into the NRL Hall of Fame.

Fittingly the ceremony was held at the SCG given that is where his love affair with the sport took shape. Heads wasn’t just a great writer. He was also a mentor to a generation of sports journalists, most of whom started their careers no doubt with ambitions of being the next Ian Heads.

Ian Heads co-authored ‘A Centenary of Rugby League’.

Big Artie, The Autobiography, by Arthur Beetson with Ian Heads.

Good luck with that. It was a lofty ambition and few reached it. Heads wasn’t at the SCG on Wednesday as he battled health issues - he was represented by his wife Joy and his son Phil.

“He is deeply humbled and appreciative and wanted me to convey that rugby league has given him far more than he ever could have imagined,” Phil Heads said.

“It has given him lifelong friendships, front row seats to some of the best sporting moments in the world, Kangaroo tours, World Cups and Olympic Games, and even the odd feud along the way.”

Aside from his time at the Telegraph, Heads also worked at Rugby League Week, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Sun-Herald. He also authored more than 40 rugby league biographies and histories.

“I got to meet Ian Heads and the thing I found most about him was when he spoke about respect - if you give respect, you get respect,” Parramatta legend Mick Cronin said.

“You could tell Ian anything but all of a sudden if you said that’s not for the papers, you knew it wasn’t going in the papers.

“He was that sort of person. Through all his writing, I never saw him do one thing to hurt rugby league.”

The game owes him a debt. They went some way to paying it on Wednesday as he joined elite company in the Hall of Fame in the contributors category.

A few years back, Phil Heads asked his father to pen a piece for the members of the SCG. He took them back to 1950 and the moment that changed his life forever.

“That single drowned day changed the direction of my life, leading me down a path on which I became a faithful follower of the game of rugby league with its mix of rawness and skills, and of my local side Easts, and eventually into the newspaper world and sports writing caper., where I remain - now and then - to this day,” Heads wrote.

GAME’S GREAT SAVIOUR HONOURED AT NRL HOF

- Dean Ritchie

They spoke about a working-class saviour who became a Redfern hero through tenacity, old-school courage and unyielding stubbornness.

He was revered – and afforded a standing ovation – for his iron-fisted and unbreakable refusal to allow South Sydney, the Pride of the League, to wither and die.

George Leslie Piggins, the man who saved his beloved Rabbitohs, was named in the NRL Hall of Fame on Wednesday in front of 150 guests inside the Steve Waugh Room at the SCG.

Piggins, 78, played 120 first grade games for Souths along with representing NSW and Australia. He was also the club’s coach and chairman.

Undoubtedly, though, his finest and most famous achievement was an inflexible ache to have Souths reinstated to the NRL after the club’s expulsion in 1999.

Now suffering dementia, Piggins attended the function, sitting on table one, wearing a grey suit and white shirt, alongside wife Nolene, nephew Braith Anasta and good mates Johnny Lewis, Henry Morris and Norm ­Lipson.

Piggins has now joined 110 previous inductees in the Hall of Fame, he entered through the contributor’s category, along with esteemed journalist and author Ian Heads.

George Piggins has been inducted into the NRL Hall of Fame. NRL Imagery

There was a genuine warmth and admiration in the room for a red and green icon who built an unwavering love and bond for a footy club that could not – and would not – be broken.

Among those attending the celebration were Souths greats Bob McCarthy and Ron Coote and ex-Rabbitohs who played under Piggins, when he coached between 1986 and 1990, Craig Coleman, David Boyle, Phil Blake, Paul Roberts, Les Davidson, Graham Lyons, Darren McCarthy and Bruce Long­bottom.

Rod Churchill, the son of South Sydney Immortal Clive, sat among the audience as did greats Ben Elias and Mick Cronin.

In a passionate speech to his former coach, Coleman said: “At the conclusion of the 1999 season, Souths were unfairly expelled from the NRL competition. They wanted us to merge, some of our own wanted us to merge and give away 100 years of community spirit and tradition but George said: ‘No way, I will bury the jumper’.

“History was made. Our working class hero not only started a major campaign, rallying the public but famously leading two rallies with more than 150,000 people proudly marching up George Street.

“It was probably the largest and strongest rally in sporting history.

South Sydney legend George Piggins receives his Hall of Fame jacket. NRL Imagery

“As Norm Provan and Arthur Summons once said, George not only saved Souths but he probably saved the game. What a tribute.

“George is a champion of the working class. The chorus to our famous club anthem, Glory, Glory to South Sydney, South Sydney marches on … yes we do because of you, George Leslie Piggins.”

Anasta added: “When I was thinking about the game of rugby league, words that come to mind are toughness, resilience, brave, courage, passion and loyalty. When you think of those words, you think of George Piggins. George Piggins really is rugby league.

“Stoic and stubborn, which George is, tenacious and competitive. The loyalty and do-it-at-all-costs to save South Sydney, there is no-one else in the world that could have done what he did.”

Alan Jones, a confidant to Piggins, spoke about “honouring a rugby league hero” and “king of the battlers”.

“Today, when we see, pleasingly, the premiership table and Souths are right up the top, they’re well coached, well-resourced, beautifully dressed, appear well and proud of the jersey, I can say to you today there would be no South Sydney if it weren’t for the man we are honouring here, George Piggins,” Jones said.

“Whatever the club might do in the future, it must not forget that it wouldn’t exist, it would be in oblivion, were it not for George and Nolene. Here is a man who coached for nothing, administered for nothing and put his own money up to make sure the club could keep going.”

Originally published as NRL 2023 Hall of Fame inductees: Legendary journalist Ian Heads, South Sydney hero George Piggins