With injuries catching up, however, Piggins retired at the end of 1978, but his experience and the skill of coach Jack Gibson that season was an important precursor for the Rabbitohs reaching the semi-finals in 1980 after winning only one of their last eighteen games in 1977.
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.
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.
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.
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.
[7] 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.
In 2002, Piggins was further honoured as a Member of the Order of Australia "for service to Rugby League football as an administrator, coach and player, and to the South Sydney community".