[u2025 Leigh Leopards[/u



Entering a 4th Year of a 5 year plan, has involved a major reset. The core of the overseas contingent have earned themselves NRL and hefty contracts in Super League. Nobody is quite sure if Lammy and Chezzy have manged to find suitable replacement or upgrades. This season looks very much like a work-in-progress and much depends if a half-back replacement for Matt Moylan can be found.



[u2024 Season Review [/u



Leigh had it tough at the start of 2024 and lost a large chunk of the 2023 Dream Team players to injury. Trout and Halton had to play big minutes in a reshuffled pack and Brad Dwyer was brought in to fill the gap at hooker. The back line resulted with the introduction of Umyla Hanley and eventually his right-edge partner Darnell McIntosh. Moylan slotted in at Fullback and O’Brien moved up to the halves.

The return of Amone, Ipape and Mulhern, sparked a late surge for the play-offs. The playoff game at Wigan showed how much this effort had taken out of the team and they surrendered meekly to a rampant Wigan.



[uTransfers Out[/u



John Asiata, Tom Amone, Kai O’Donnell, Zak Hardaker, Olly Holmes, Ed Chamberlain, Matt Moylan, Ricky Leutele, Dan Norman, Jacob Jones, Tom Nisbet, Jacob Gannon, Lewis Baxter



[uTransfers In[/u



David Armstrong, Isaac Liu, Tessi Niu, Ryan Brown, Brad Martin, AJ Towse, Alec Tuitavake, Ethan O’Neill, Will Brough



Transfer Analysis



Captain John Asiata departs the LSV to be replaced by Issac “The Iceman” Liu. 272 NRL appearances and a nickname of “The Iceman” how bad can he be? The major coup for the Leopards was capturing the signature of David Armstrong on a 3 year contract. Newcastle Knights were pursuing the 23 year old to extend his stay in the NRL, but Davey had a dream of coming to Leigh and being a Superstar.

Tessi Niu, replaces the very popular Ricky Leutele who appears to have been hoodwinked by his own agent. Tom Amone and Kai O’Donnell resume careers in the NRL and it is unsure at this stage if the new recruitments will be able to fill some very big boots.

Ben Condon will not be arriving at the LSV, and with the departure of Tom Nisbet, the number of mullets on the field will be reduced to one.



[u2025 Predictions[/u



Lammy and Chezzy have so far been able to identify some good signings in the last three years, and the hope is they have identified some good talent. The motto “In Lam fidimus” is never used in Leigh but we do trust our management team.



The Leigh Leopards do, however, tend to start the season slowly. With a multitude of changes and what many believe to be a top halfback partner for Lockie not secured for the start of the season. This may well be another slow start to 2025.



The backs will have some genuine pace, and the forwards look to be more mobile rather than Tom Amone's brute strength. A spine of Armstrong, Lam, O’Brien, Ipape and Liu should be competitive against most teams.

The starting XIII may not be as strong but perhaps the squad has more depth. It would be rather difficult to anticipate a final finishing position, so I have elected a 6th spot as the minimum expected from Adrian Lam and the Leigh faithful.

https://tbrrugbyleague.com/opinion/leig ... -turnover/ A good preview.

https://tbrrugbyleague.com/opinion/leig ... -turnover/ A good preview.

It has all gone very quiet…... Seemingly no rumours. It now seems probable that any replacement for Matt Moylan will miss most if not all of pre-season training. Not a good look after the verbals aimed at Hull last year. I thought it had been said that we were going full cap with three marquee players. Squad numbers should be announced soon.

We have the full cap available to spend. If we sign an experienced half then he's going to get a reasonably lengthy contract. We have to make sure we make the right move.



Moylan spent the majority of last season at fullback and we've got a significant upgrade in that department. We won the CC with Reynolds at 6. We made our late run last season with Gareth O'Brien and McNamara at 6. I don't feel there's any rush to sign a player if the right one is not available.



I'm confident we have a good list of options, but often with NRL players it's about timing. Let's not sabotage our future by making the wrong move in a pivotal position that will leave us stuffed for options for the next 2 or 3 seasons.



I predict we'll have our man by the mid point of this seasons.

Sorry, but O'Brien and McNamara are not in my opinion good enough as half back options to enable us to challenge for top 6 again.



We need to obtain a quality half and all the indications are that this is being taken care of. Derek has advised us fans to be both patient and to expect more 'signings' - plural not singular. The only signing that has happened since he said this has been Alec Tuitavake. Now my maths might not be brilliant but it is just about robust enough to work out that this means there is at least one more signing to come.



Add to the mix Derek's so called cryptic social media comments about another half back signing which to me made it fairly obvious that a half is indeed to be signed so, 'reading the runes', I think we can all look forward to at least one more signing announcement before the season starts and a half at that.



Yes, we want the half back to be right for us and to be half decent and at least better than the options that we have already got.



Oh, yes, and Marc Sneyd is today being pedalled to all SL interested parties together with the rest of the Salford first team. The rumour mill is that we are in for him. Purely a coincidence of course. Watch this space.



Is Sneyd a better quality SL half back than Gareth O'Brien? Come on, let's be realistic.



I for one would love to see Sneyd playing for us this season. If he does then the team's prospects have suddenly taken a considerable upturn.



Even if Sneyd goes elsewhere then I remain optimistic that another good quality half will be announced fairly soon.

No arguments from me that a truly quality half is a big upgrade on GO'b or McNamara and increases our potential, but I'm also not all that worried about us not signing someone before the season starts.

Is there only me worried about our forward options at the moment? As we all know we we were a much better team last year with Amone on the field, the games he missed we lacked real go forward as Mulhern couldn’t do it all himself, which pack is better? Halfbacks are secondary if you don’t win the middle.



2024

Mulhern

Ipape

Amone

Halton

ODonnell

Asiata



Sub Forwards (take you’re pick)

Trout

Hughes

Dwyer

Davis

Pene

Norman

Holmes

Baxter

Wilde



2025

Mulhern

Ipape

Trout

Halton

O’Neill

Liu



Sub forwards

Hughes

Tuitavake

Davis

Pene

Wilde

Dwyer

Martin

Brown

Agree. For the first 13/17, we've effectively replaced Tom Amone with either Tuitivake, who will likely need time to develop, or Nakubuwai who has shown he's not good enough for this level.

faster in the backs,weaker in the forwards only one good half back in the squad and no real goal kicker.seem we could be in for a difficult season.But`then Chester and Lam seem to have a knack of getting things right

Yes, that about sums it up for me too.



I could perhaps add that we have (yet) again a new season and a new team. How quickly will we gel. The season could well be over for Cup runs and top 6 finishes before we hopefully become cohesive and dangerous again.



Transition season only for me. I really, really hope that I am wrong.

as none of us have seen any of the new boys play full games how can we know

we do know it takes time to gel a top class half back would help as would some home games early is it only us has this handicap

we did say would go back for condon once hes fit

surely pene has more to offer trout will be fitter and claim his place the others are mainly young men hopefully we have picked the right characters and they will go on to make themselves known as amone and odonnell did

Agree that we need a quality halfback, and i really do hope we do get one sooner rather than later, I hope what we go with doesn't affect our execution play like it did last year at times like Lammy pointed out more than once. However, we don't have a quota spot atm for Condon or any quota spot, but if we can offload Ben Nak, we can look at bringing in a top quality half. After saying that, Lammy must feel we're in a better place this season with the squad that we have now than we had last year, especially due to the disruption we had with the S&C late on just before our warm weather training in Lanzarote. Looks like we will have to go with what we have for now, and i will go for that for now. Still half glass full though.

Absolutely right. None of us know but that's the beauty of having an opinion and I respect anyone here who holds a different opinion to my own.



At the end of the day we all support the same club and we sometimes watch the same things but come to different conclusions. Long may that continue.



Speculation as to what is going to happen is all part of the fun of being a fan.

I'm amazed we haven't got a quality goal-kicker as some of the tight results will be decided by goal-kicking. I assume Macintosh and Gaz will be the goal-kickers, unless 1 of the new lads is proficient in that task. However, it's been reported Macintosh has picked up an injury in training. I'm sure it will be sorted eventually. Lam and Chester know what they're doing.

Reports that Huddersfield are in talks with Jacob Miller for the 2025 season. Just goes to show the lack of quality half backs available at this moment in time - I'm happy we're not going down a similar route of taking the dregs on offer. O'Brien and McNamara are good enough options to start the season with hopefully something to add as we progress.

https://www.leighjournal.co.uk/sport/24 ... -leopards/ "Lam also hasn’t given up hope of son Lachlan extending his stay at Leigh Sports Village beyond the end of the coming new season. Speaking at the club’s pre-season media day, Lam said: “We are one of only two or three clubs who have space on the cap and potentially a quota spot if we need to." Interesting language from Lammy Snr.

https://www.leighjournal.co.uk/sport/24 ... -leopards/ "Lam also hasn’t given up hope of son Lachlan extending his stay at Leigh Sports Village beyond the end of the coming new season. Speaking at the club’s pre-season media day, Lam said: “We are one of only two or three clubs who have space on the cap and potentially a quota spot if we need to." Interesting language from Lammy Snr.

“Potentially a quota spot” presume that is related to big Ben but seems a strange situation, using that logic surely any other club could offload a contracted quota player to make room for another

Guessing other clubs won't have a quota player that they are already looking to move on. Seen a suggestion on here that he triggered an extra year on his contract with his number of appearances last year. Which if is the case means that Lam was mistaken in continually giving him 5-10 min appearances before he got injured last season.



Overall, we need Armstrong, Niu and Liu to have good seasons. If they do, we should make the 6 again. If any of them struggle to settle, then it will be a difficult season.

Isaac Liu was used sparingly last season 30 or 40 minutes a game. He does a lot of tackling but looks ponderous even when running out before kick off. Loads of experience in big games. Will help the younger players with his experience.



Niu looks suspect in defence. Hopefully, the move to Leigh will do him good.



Armstrong is a class act. He can catch pigeons. Can only get better and better. Needs Lam or Gaz kicking over top of defence for Armstrong to run onto. Like Svabic used to do for Turley.

When I knew we had signed Liu and Nue, I watched them closely. Liu only played two ten minute spots and was very quiet in games, and that was all season, so very little game time. Nue played very little nrl, came on as sub a couple of times. He played well in nsw cup, but looked overweight when I did see him. Hopefully a full pre season training will get him where he should be. I am a little nervous of these two if I’m honest. Time will tell. As for Armstrong, if we get the tactics right and play to this guys strengths, then he will be amazing. Can’t wait for the season to start.

To be fair to Liu, the difference between the NRL and superleague in terms of speed and physicality is night and day. Luke Thompson is a 70 minute player in SL but couldn't hack the NRL. I'd expect Liu to be able to bigger minutes for us - doesn't have to be a 80 minute player with the Ipape at loose forward option.



I am bit skeptical about a 2 year contract for him though in truth.

In fairness, with the exception of early days in the 2022 season when we needed to put ANY team on the pitch (and with the exception of a Round 2 loss at Fev and a squeaky bum CCup tie agin Bradford, that worked out well), Chez, Lam and Degsy have not brought in too many post-Christmas turkeys - though one seems at the mo to be stuck to the sole of our collective boot.



Lam is a great coach, regardless of what Wigan "fans (?)" "think (?)"

One of Derek's greatest achievements



Leigh Leopards

2019 average attendance: 3,194

2024 average attendance: 8,391



Change: +5,197



Ranks just below winning the Challenge Cup.