football as part of his award. With the work-rate of a relatively lightweight but extremely tough forward pack containing Les Davidson, David Boyle, Michael Andrews, Wayne Chisholm, captain Mario Fenech and young giant Ian Roberts, Piggins took the Rabbitohs into the finals again in his second season. Although they scored the fewest tries of the thirteen clubs playing, their ability to win tight, low-scoring games kept the Rabbitohs at the top of the table. Injuries to their pack in 1988 saw them finish eighth despite remedying their weakness in backline pace through acquiring Phil Blake. The side was also set back by the loss of two premiership points due to Piggins playing 17-year-old President's Cup player Scott Wilson in a game against Manly which Souths won, due to a breach of replacement rules. 1989 saw the Rabbitohs as the undisputed pace-setters until the finals, winning twelve games in a row through a watertight defence and skilful, solid backline play. 1990, however, was a disaster as Boyle, Andrews and Chisholm succumbed to injury and Roberts, who by this time was Souths best player, was lost to Manly. The Rabbitohs' watertight defence became incredibly thin and the team won only two games all season – actually conceding more tries in their last five games than in the entire 1989 home-and-away season. Piggins was axed as coach at the end of that year to be replaced by Frank Curry in 1990, but stayed involved by becoming Chairman of the Leagues Club. Administration In 2000 Piggins was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to Australia's international standing in the sport of rugby league. Due to the National Rugby League's plans for a fourteen-team competition, the South Sydney club was excluded from the NRL premiership commencing with the 2000 season. Piggins was the chairman of the South Sydney club during the legal battle against the NRL for re-inclusion in the premiership, which was achieved during 2001. He led the marches and even put up $3.2 million of his own money in a mortgage on the club's block of units adjacent to the leagues club. That year Piggins was awarded the Centenary Medal "for service to the sport of rugby league" as the Rabbitohs returned to the playing field in 2002. At the start of that year his book, Never Say Die: The Fight to save the Rabbitohs was published. Its title refers to