The Story Of 2023
Promoted teams never do well in Super League. The gulf in class between the top flight and the Championship is just too big. Leigh have found this out on numerous occasions since their first crack at Super League back in 2005. It is a truism that has become ingrained in the psyche of rugby league fans and now the administrators.
So much so that there has been an eager acceptance of IMGs proposal to return to a franchising system. From now on - though who knows for how long in rugby league - off the field performance is more likely to get you promoted to the big league than anything you might do on it.
Yet flying in the face of all this are the events of 2023. Leigh - fresh from changing their name from Leigh Centurions to Leigh Leopards amid the sniggering from opposing fans - did not concern themselves with what will be the sport's final on-field relegation battle. For a while at least. Instead, they broke into the top five and reached the playoffs. But that was a mere sideshow.
Their crowning glory was winning the Challenge Cup for the first time in 52 years. Lachlan Lam's golden point extra time drop-goal sealed a 17-16 win over Hull KR at Wembley, evoking memories of the Leigh club’s heroes of 1971.
These achievements are the best argument for letting results dictate a club's place in the pyramid since Wigan got relegated in 1980 under the stewardship of Saints legend Kel Coslett. So of course we are choosing this moment to go back to franchising. This is rugby league, remember?
The season didn't start too well for Leigh. In the opening fortnight they showed no signs that they would do anything other than face another losing battle for survival in defeats at home to Salford and in Perpignan against the Catalans Dragons. A 30-25 win at Hull KR offered some respite before Adrian Lam’s side took the significant scalp of St Helens.
Still nobody believed there was any kind of sea change in the offing. Promoted sides still lost far more than they won and so two wins in the first four outings wasn’t remarkable. Besides, Saints’ defeat was blamed on the exertion from their recent trip to Sydney. They had been crowned world champions after edging out Penrith Panthers in their own back yard. None of this playing them at home cowardice preferred by some world title pretenders.
It was not unreasonable to blame the jet lag. Saints had also lost at home to Leeds. When quick starting Warrington ran all over Leigh in a 38-20 win at the Halliwell Jones on St Patrick’s Day there was good reason to believe normal service had been resumed. The Leopards won at Hull in their next fixture but a 34-6 home loss to Wigan followed by a 22-20 defeat when Salford visited the Leigh Sports Village indicated more struggles lay ahead.
At which point the newly branded club reeled off seven league wins on the spin. Wakefield, Leeds, Castleford and Huddersfield were all dismissed before Warrington were paid back for their earlier win as the Leopards triumphed 30-12 at home at the end of May.
Wakefield and Hull were beaten again and it took eventual Grand Finalists Catalans Dragons to spoil the fun. Even then Adrian Lam’s men only went down by a relatively narrow margin, losing 38-30 in Perpignan.
Leigh won four of their next five before that epic Wembley win over Rovers. A dip in form is normal after winning a major final. Celebrations, emotional fatigue, it all plays a part. A 30-14 loss at home to the Dragons and a 52-10 shellacking at Hull KR suggested it might happen to the new cup holders. Yet wins against Huddersfield and Wakefield were enough to seal fifth spot and a playoff berth despite late season defeats by Saints and Wigan.
In the playoffs it was Rovers who again stood in the way. This time the outcome would be different from that seen in the Challenge Cup final. Perhaps it was finally a game too far for Leigh who were eliminated from Grand Final contention after a 20-6 reverse.
A first Challenge Cup win in over half a century and a playoff berth represents success for most Super League clubs. For a newly promoted side it is dreamland. Any disappointment at the playoff exit has to be put into the context of the outrageous achievement in not only getting into the post season party but also winning a major trophy that any other club would kill for. Sometimes promotion does work.
The 2024 Recruits
The star name among the incoming crop for 2024 is Cronulla Sharks stand-off Matt Moylan. He may be 32 years old now but Moylan is an upgrade on Ben Reynolds and looks set to form one of the league’s better halfback pairings with Lachlan Lam.
Moylan has close to 200 NRL games under his belt with both the Sharks and during a spell with Penrith Panthers. He featured in the 2016 State Of Origin series and made one appearance for the Australian Kangaroos that year. He’s a proper player if he brings his best form.
The likely to be preferred halfback pairing of Lachlan Lam and Moylan will have Ben McNamara backing them up. He joins from Hull FC where he made only 25 appearances in four seasons.
As FC tried to find the right balance with the likes of Jake Connor, Luke Gale, Marc Sneyd and latterly Jake Trueman and Jake Clifford, the son of Catalans Dragons and former England coach Steve McNamara failed to get much of a sniff. Still only 22 years old, he has time on his side but will want to establish himself at Super League level sooner rather than later.
Coach Lam has looked closer to home to try to strengthen his pack. In comes Owen Trout from Huddersfield Giants in the back row, while Saints’ forgotten man Dan Norman arrives in the front row. Trout has played 50 times for the Giants since 2020 after starting his career at Leeds. He also had loan spells at Dewsbury and Featherstone in the Championship.
Norman has endured a difficult three seasons at Saints after starting at Widnes and moving on to North Wales Crusaders and London Broncos. At six feet five inches tall it was perhaps hoped that he could be moulded into the next Alex Walmsley, who was plucked from Championship Batley and became the dominant forward in the top flight.
Yet it hasn’t turned out that way with Norman only managing 21 appearances for Saints. Oddly, he made it into the Saints 17 for the first time in the 2021 Challenge Cup semi-final win over Hull FC which was halfway through his debut season. Kristian Woolf wasn’t afraid to throw somebody in at the deep end. Norman has had a couple of loan spells at Leigh so will be used to his surroundings. No need to worry about him settling in.
Leigh have taken a gamble on a batch of youngsters from the fringes of the traditional elite clubs. Lewis Baxter is a 21 year-old back rower who only took to the field three times for Saints while 20 year-old centre Jack Darbyshire arrives from Warrington who his late father Paul served with distinction.
The Leopards have also acquired forward Kavan Rothwell from Wigan who has just turned 21. Slightly older at 23, Louis Brogan is another young front rower who has been gaining experience with Swinton Lions in the Championship before making the move across Greater Manchester.
So Who’s Out?
Most of the men who made 2023 such a memorable year are retained with departures kept to a reasonable minimum. Reynolds will spend 2024 at Featherstone after nine seasons across three spells with Leigh. A key part of the successes of 2023, Reynolds has nevertheless become expendable due to the arrivals of Moylan and McNamara.
Oliver Gildart had a useful loan spell at Leigh last season after failing to make an impact with Wests Tigers and Sydney Roosters in the NRL. Yet the former Wigan man was never going to stick around at the Leigh Sports Village having already agreed a deal with Hull KR for 2024 and beyond.
It is perhaps a little surprising that centre or back rower Joe Wardle has dropped down two divisions to join Sean Long’s Oldham project in League One. Wardle is still only 32 and may have more to offer in the top flight but perhaps the carrot of an assistant coaching role was persuasive.
The much travelled Ava Seumanufagai has chosen to wind down his career with semi-professional outfit Campbelltown City Kangaroos in New South Wales. Seumanufagai played 15 times for Leigh in 2023 - his one season with the Leopards - but mostly in a supporting role behind Tom Amone and Robbie Mulhern.
Also leaving the Leigh pack is former Saint Aaron Smith. Once hopeful of becoming the successor to Super League great James Roby in the club’s revered hooking role, Smith has instead spent much of his time since departing Saints in 2022 in the Championship. He will do so again in 2024 having signed a two-year deal with Barrow Raiders.
What’s The Expectation?
If you make the playoffs and win the Challenge Cup then expectations are inevitably going to rise. There won’t be many RL observers - and even fewer Leigh fans - going into the 2024 campaign expecting the Leopards to resume their former role of Super League basement dwellers.
With Moylan added to the back division and the excellent Amone still leading the pack there may be questions asked if Leigh don’t at least go close to making the top six again.
What Will Really Happen?
We could see a repeat given the continuity from last term, with relatively few players moved on. There is perhaps a slight worry that some of the strike players are getting a little long in the tooth. We have seen already that Moylan is 32, and so are fullback Gareth O’Brien, Zak Hardaker and try scoring winger Josh Charnley. Opposite him the other wide man Tom Briscoe is 33, as is centre Ricky Leutele. There is a point at which experience becomes agedness which becomes a weakness. The question is, have Leigh reached that point or is this group good for another year at least?
Wigan’s involvement in the World Club Challenge against Penrith Panthers conveniently gives the old stagers in the Leigh side a break in the second week of the season. That could be a huge help given that they also face Saints and Leeds in the first few weeks after opening at home to Huddersfield.
They end the season against Saints, but the presence of London and Castleford and London on the schedule in the last five weeks could be more than welcome should a couple of late season wins be required to secure a playoff place.
Ultimately, with Warrington and Leeds at least threatening to improve on their 2023 showings it’s going to be tough for Leigh to stay among the elite. But if they do miss out it won’t be by much.
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