It was late 2000 or early 2021 when radio king Alan Jones picked up the phone to South Sydney icon George Piggins and called a meeting.
Souths had just lost their Federal Court case against News Limited after claiming they had been wrongfully excluded from the new 14-team NRL competition.
Jones had an idea, and invited Piggins, South Sydney’s lawyer Nick Pappas, and News Limited boss John Hartigan to his penthouse apartment in Newtown, inner-western Sydney, to outline his plan.
South Sydney, the working-class, foundation club banished from the NRL in 2000 and about to enter a second year in the rugby league wilderness, should merge with … the Canberra Raiders.
The extraordinary proposal left Piggins and Pappas stunned – and will come as a shock to Rabbitohs supporters nearly 25 years on.
It has been reported in the past that Kerry Packer called a meeting with Piggins and Sydney Roosters chairman Nick Politis when the Super League war erupted, asking them if they were prepared to merge.
Merger plan: George Piggins, Alan Jones, Nick Pappas and John Hartigan.Credit: Stephen Kiprillis/SMH
When Piggins asked Politis what say Souths would have in the marriage, Politis replied, ‘None’ – to which Piggins told Packer: “There’s your answer.”
Keith Barnes, the Balmain legend, also picked up the phone to Piggins around the same time to discuss a merger with Souths, only for Piggins to tell him: “Keith, when have you ever seen a red and green tiger?”
Now, the story of a proposed union between Canberra and South Sydney can be revealed. Two key figures – Pappas and Souths’ then deputy chairman, former Test fast bowler Mike Whitney – have told this masthead for the first time about the events that took place over a few days that could have changed the course of both clubs’ history.
”We were in that period where we had just lost our main trial before Justice Finn,” Pappas said. “We had lodged our appeal before the full bench of the Federal Court, and we were on a low – we were clinging by the thread of that appeal.
George Piggins addresses Souths fans after their victory in the Federal Court in 2001.Credit: Dallas Kilponen
“I got a call from George saying, ‘You wouldn’t believe it, but I’ve just got a call from Alan, wanting us to meet at his place with John Hartigan’.
“I said, ‘Do you really want to go, George?’ He said, ‘We’ll go and hear what they have to say, because I have no idea what it’s about’.
“We went up there. Alan did a lot of the talking, with John sitting there nodding in approval, and he asked if we’d consider a merger with Canberra, which News then controlled. We would become known as the ‘Canberra Rabbitohs’.
“I remember George giving me this look which only George could give. We left a little bit surprised, we said we’d think about it, but I don’t think we even got back to them.
‘Alan did a lot of the talking … he asked if we’d consider a merger with Canberra, which News then controlled. We would become known as the Canberra Rabbitohs.’
Nick Pappas
“They thought Canberra needed an injection of membership and support beyond Canberra, and Souths could deliver that nationwide support. News also wanted to ultimately offload the club [they owned at the time], and this was a nice segue.
“There was also a curious comment about Canberra playing in a darker shade of green, which was closer to the Rabbitohs green than lime, so the merger would seem more seamless.
“The plan was for the games to be shared between Sydney and Canberra. Alan put forward some strong arguments. He made it clear. It was a matter for the Souths board. George and I sat there in silence.
“Even though I was saying at the time we had strong prospects on appeal, and we still had a chance, there was a view behind the scenes in some circles we might be on a loser, and we should hedge our bets.
Canberra captain Laurie Daley with Brett Mullins and David Furner in 2000.Credit: Mike Bowers
“But we were all in this to the death. Compromise was never part of the equation.”
Piggins and Pappas attended a Souths’ board meeting, and Whitney remembers the reaction around the room.
“I wasn’t asked to go to that meeting with Alan, but when George and Nick told us, ‘[News think] we should merge and be the Canberra Rabbitohs, so we can get back in the competition’, everyone was like, ‘Tell us you’re joking’,” Whitney said.
“I actually remember standing up and saying, ‘No, never, whose idea is this?’
Fans in full voice … the protest to reinstate the Rabbitohs.Credit: Craig Golding
“News Limited probably thought we were vulnerable at the time, and they told us they would support us and look after us if we went that way. But it wasn’t a popular decision at all.
“I’d never heard George swear, but I thought he was going to drop the ‘F-bomb’ that night. He was shaking his head. George was a tough man. He was a bit disappointed in Alan. I can’t speak for George, but Alan was considered one of George’s best friends. Alan was someone in a place of high power at the time, and to suggest we merge with Canberra, it didn’t go down too well.
“It got shut down within five seconds. George always said, ‘I’d rather see the Souths jersey in a glass case than the club merge’. Everyone felt the same.”
Hartigan, who spent more than 40 years with News Limited, including as CEO for the final decade, said: “I don’t recall the meeting, the subject of the meeting, nor the people you named.”
Piggins has been battling dementia for several years and is now in a nursing home in Sydney’s east. Souths fans will never forget the role he played in ultimately leading the club back into the NRL competition the following year in 2002. That same year, News Limited sold the Raiders.
Norm Lipson, a former journalist and one of Piggins’ best friends, said he had met with Hartigan later in the 2001 season at his office in Holt St, Surry Hills, where Hartigan agreed to meet Piggins and his wife, Nolene.
“John told me he was prepared to meet George at the Cauliflower Hotel, which was Souths heartland and the equivalent of walking into the lion’s den,” Lipson said.
“But we met at George’s place at Coogee, and John discussed Souths merging with Cronulla [a club News had a stake in at the time]. It was never going to work. Again, George said he had no interest in a merger.
“If it wasn’t for George’s tenacity, integrity and love for his community, the Rabbitohs wouldn’t exist today.”
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