Piggins and Maguire talk peace

[josie andrews]

GEORGE PIGGINS, the South Sydney saviour who fell out with the club's millionaire co-owners Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court, has met incoming coach Michael Maguire and told him he would be willing to address the players at training - but only under specific circumstances.

One of those being, no doubt, that Crowe is nowhere near the joint at the time.

The fact he was prepared to meet Maguire could be seen as a softening of the feud between Piggins and the Rabbitohs, which has been simmering since 2006, when Crowe and Holmes a Court took ownership of the club in an at times spiteful ballot.

The former hooker maintained last night he would still not attend a Rabbitohs home game, and explained why to Maguire during their meeting last week at Piggins's Coogee home.
''I prefer to watch it on TV these days, like the rest of the older blokes,'' Piggins said.

''It might be different if it was at Redfern or the SFS, but getting out to Homebush is a bit far.''

That said, he is clearly prepared to attend training.

''He [Maguire] asked about coming to training to talk to the players, and I said: 'Yes, I would, under some circumstances,''' Piggins said. ''I do watch every game they play. If he said to me he'd like me to come [to training], I'd go if I thought I had any value doing it. I might be just a gibbering old man these days.''
Piggins, who was instrumental in the Rabbitohs' readmittance to the competition a decade ago, said he agreed to meet Maguire at the request of the coach and the pair talked for about 90 minutes.

''He wanted to find out a few things about Souths,'' Piggins said. ''There's plenty of people there I haven't got much time for, but I'm not including Michael in that.''

Piggins maintained that the Rabbitohs were better served playing at the Sydney Football Stadium, saying small crowds at ANZ Stadium were like a ''pimple on a pumpkin''.


http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... 1dy7CdSbO