Season Preview 2024 - Leigh Leopards

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. 

Season Preview 2024 - Leeds Rhinos

The Story Of 2023

For a club of Leeds Rhinos’ standing, that is one with eight Grand Final victories to its name, the 2023 season was an unmitigated disaster.  Rohan Smith’s side landed in eighth place at the end of the 27 regular season rounds, with 12 wins and 15 losses.  It was a campaign that was the very definition of inconsistency.

Perhaps we could have seen that coming from their first three results.  They opened the season with two pretty chastening defeats, going down 42-10 at Warrington and then suffering a home loss to win-one-lose-three’s Hull FC.  Not great preparation for a visit to the four-in-a-row champions St Helens, then.  No matter, as the Rhinos marched into the home of the Saints and emerged with a one-point, 25-24 victory thanks to Blake Austin’s late drop-goal.

The pattern continued throughout March as the Rhinos lost to Castleford and Hull KR either side of a rousing 32-22 triumph over eventual Grand Finalists Catalans Dragons.  Leeds could not string together more than three consecutive wins at any point in the season, a feat they achieved in late June and early July when they overcame Huddersfield, Warrington and Salford.  

There was even a form of inconsistency within that stretch as the Giants were clobbered 54-0 but the Red Devils were only just edged out 16-14 either side of a 22-6 win over the Wolves.  Conversely, three games was also their longest losing streak.  Between May 26 and June 11 they lost to Saints, Castleford (again) and Wakefield (say whaaaaat?).  But only by a combined total of 13 points. 

Even the Challenge Cup couldn’t bring about a change.  Their first assignment in the last 16 was a visit from holders Wigan.  The Rhinos had blasted the Warriors 40-18 only a week earlier, and had done so with 12 men after the dismissal of Zane Tetavano.  They raced into a 14-0 lead which must have instilled a sense of déjà vu into Matty Peet’s men.  At which point Leeds collapsed, going out of the competition after allowing Wigan to score 18 unanswered points to complete an 18-14 turnaround. 

The 2024 Recruits

The acquisition of Brodie Croft from Salford Red Devils could be a game changer. The 2022 Steve Prescott Man Of Steel had a more understated 2023 as Ian Watson’s side missed the playoffs by a couple of points. Yet the 26 year-old remains one of the best players in Super League. If he finds the form of a couple of years ago Leeds are in business.

Following Croft from Salford to Leeds is England hooker Andy Ackers. He spent time at London Broncos and Toronto Wolfpack before the move to the AJ Bell saw him blossom into an international player at a relatively late stage of his career. He is now 30, and perhaps for the first time has landed at a club where the pressure to perform and win is fairly intense. At least at playoff time should they make it that far. It maybe helps him a little that the Rhinos are coming off a bad year but there is always an expectation of success.

Fullback Lachie Miller made an outstanding start to the 2023 NRL season with Newcastle Knights. However, without wishing to sound too Pete and Dud about it he had a wobble in the form department which, coupled with the return from injury of superstar Kalyn Ponga saw him out of the side towards the back end of the campaign. So much so that he was released from the final two years of his three-year contract in Newcastle. That allows him to have a crack at solving a Leeds fullback problem that has seemed to exist since the departure of Zak Hardaker.

Leeds’ other notable NRL recruit has been in West Yorkshire before. Matt Frawley is a halfback who endured a massively underwhelming year with Huddersfield Giants in 2019. It was a surprise then that he was picked up by Canberra Raiders but perhaps not so staggering that he has only made 22 appearances in four seasons with NRL England the Green Machine. Two other former Raiders halves have departed Headingley in Aidan Sezer and Austin so Frawley is the next cab off the rank. Reports that Ricky Stuart is coming out of retirement to play for Leeds next year are unconfirmed.

In the three-quarters the big addition is Paul Momorowski. Despite having a surname that sounds like a breed of chinchilla available at Pets At Home, the 27 year-old is actually a pretty useful centre with 60 NRL games under his belt. One of those was the 2021 Grand Final which he won with Penrith Panthers. He arrives in Leeds from Sydney Roosters but has also played for Melbourne Storm and Wests Tigers. If he clicks into gear then he and Harry Newman could form one of the league’s better centre partnerships.

Rhinos coach Rohan Smith has decided upon a policy of quality over quantity in his recruitment this year. Aside from Castleford Tigers prospect Kieran Hudson there is only one more name to add to the list of arrivals. That is back rower Mickael Goudemand. 

A Grand Finalist with Catalans Dragons in 2021 the 27 year-old did not feature in last year’s showpiece despite turning out 17 times for Steve McNamara’s side throughout the season. Now he heads north, out of the sunshine to add to a back row that already includes former Saints Rottweiler James Bentley, classy duo Rhyse Martin and Cameron Smith as well as the emerging talent of Morgan Gannon.

So Who’s Out?

I’ve already given the game away on Austin and Sezer. Former Wire man Austin’s days were numbered when he played out the last knockings of last season on loan at Castleford despite Rohan Smith’s apparent lack of knowledge of the move. Austin has since left Castleford Tigers and will instead represent the ludicrously named Central Coast Division Rugby League outfit Entrance Tigers in 2024. Meanwhile Sezer is also a Tiger, but of the Wests variety in the NRL. 

The loss of former Penrith Panthers Grand Final winning forward Tetevano is a much more troubling tale. The 33 year-old suffered a stroke in training and required surgery to repair a hole in his heart. He has since been given the green light to resume the aerobic aspects of training but not yet for full contact. With his career in some jeopardy he has been released by the Rhinos. 

Now, does anybody remember when Salford centre Joel Moon forced his way out of the club so he could go and win two Grand Finals and two Challenge Cups with the Rhinos? Well finally the Red Devils have taken a measure of revenge with the capture of Papua New Guinea international centre Nene McDonald. The former Leigh man appeared to go awol at the end of last term but now has a four-year deal with Paul Rowley’s side. Salford fans may take some joy in that fact, but they may also reflect that it was not worth the loss of Croft and Ackers.

Meanwhile prop Sam Walters could turn out to be a regrettable loss for Leeds. The 23 year-old was starting to make a real name for himself at Headingley but has made the trip west to join Wigan. Touted as a future international, Walters leaves a hole in the front row which Rohan Smith will hope can be filled by England international Mikolaj Oledzki, former Gold Coast man Sam Lisone, Mali-born French international Justin Sangare and local product Tom Holroyd.

Miller’s arrival and that of Croft and Frawley have meant that Richie Myler’s future lies elsewhere. The former Salford, Warrington and Catalans man has been at Headingley since 2018, scoring 52 tries in 134 appearances usually from fullback or the halves. The 2020 Lance Todd trophy winner will turn 34 midway through the season which he will spend with York Knights having agreed a one-year deal.

In the file marked ‘any other business’ fullback Luke Hooley and three-quarter Liam Tindall have moved on to Castleford and Hull FC respectively. The pair have struggled to break into the Leeds side despite its recent shortcomings.

What’s The Expectation? 

It’s a difficult one to gauge. The 2023 season was hugely disappointing but only 12 months prior to that the Rhinos found themselves in the Grand Final where they became Saints’ fourth consecutive victim. 

Expecting anything as a Leeds fan would appear to be complete folly. They have developed a bit of a reputation for playing the system having won the competition twice from fifth position in the league table. Even that 2022 Grand Final appearance was achieved on the back of another fifth placed finish. 

Their last League Leaders Shield success was the historic treble year of 2015 with a team which featured Hardaker, Moon, Kallum Watkins, Ryan Hall, Rob Burrow, Kevin Sinfield and Jamie Peacock.  They haven’t finished in the top four since 2017 when they were runners-up to Castleford before claiming the title by beating the Tigers in the Grand Final. 

If Leeds are in the top six at the end of the weekly rounds they have previous for doing a lot of damage. It’s a habit which will always give their fans hope, if not always absolute belief.

What Will Really Happen?

It seems a bit Captain Obvious but it very much depends on how well the new men fit in. In Croft they have a player who could dominate the league should the mood take him. The decision to pair him with Frawley - if that is what Coach Smith does - looks more questionable. Ackers should be an upgrade at hooker where Jarrod O’Connor had been filling in despite not really specialising in the role previously. 

Yet there would have to be concerns about the rest of the pack with Walters gone. A lot seems to rest on Oledzki who didn’t have his best season in 2023. The Polish-born prop was troubled by a shoulder injury but hopes to be at his best in 2024. Leeds fans will have everything crossed. In the back row Bentley is never too far away from a meltdown and a subsequent suspension but Martin and Cameron Smith are as good as there is anywhere else in Super League. 

Don’t expect Leeds to be topping the table but you’d also be wise not to write them off as long as they are still in the fight.

Season Preview 2024 - Hull KR

The Story Of 2023…

Hull KR didn’t actually win anything last year. They haven’t won a top tier competition since the 1986 Yorkshire Cup. Yet there was a scenario in which three more wins in 2023 could have brought them a Super League and Challenge Cup double. 

Rovers fell one step short of Old Trafford, losing in the semi-final to Wigan. They were well beaten 42-12 in the end. They’d saved their most disappointing performance of the season for last. Yet if you’d offered any Robins fan a Super League semi-final at the start of the season you would have had to move your hand away quickly to avoid having it bitten off. 

Expectations were outstripped in the Challenge Cup also. After victories over Batley (50-0), Salford (28-10) and Wigan (11-10) Willie Peters’ side found themselves in the Challenge Cup final which had returned to Wembley after a season at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. There they faced equally unlikely finalists, newly promoted Leigh Leopards who had overcome champions St Helens in their semi-final and beaten Wakefield and York in earlier rounds. It ended in heartbreak for Peters’ men who were beaten 17-16 thanks to Lachlan Lam’s extra-time, golden point drop-goal. 

The league campaign had started brilliantly as Wigan were downed 27-18 at Sewell Group Craven Park. Yet a four-game losing streak followed as all of Salford, Leigh, Warrington and Catalans handed Rovers defeats. Their second league win of the year - a 34-6 success at Wakefield - came 34 days after that first one at home to the Warriors. 

Rovers were nothing if not streaky. After that miserable month of March they rattled off six league wins in a row. Among them was a 40-0 derby victory over FC on Good Friday and a 26-14 win over Saints a week later. Guess what happened next? Four defeats. You get the picture, but for the record Warrington, Wigan, Salford and Catalans all got the better of Rovers before the rot was stopped with a 28-12 win over Wakefield in late June. 

Defeats to Saints and Wigan followed, the latter by a 64-6 scoreline a week before the Wembley final. Yet the schizophrenic Robins ended the season with five wins in a row to get into the playoffs in fourth place with 16 wins and 11 defeats during the regular season. They cleared one knockout hurdle when they gained a mini revenge on Leigh with a 20-6 triumph, before running into a Wigan side powered by a Liam Marshall har-trick and a Jai Field double. While there was no silver, it had still been an outstanding 2023 for Peters’ men.

The 2024 Recruits

Things might have worked out differently for Rovers if Oliver Gildart’s try for Leigh in the last game of the regular season had not been disallowed for obstruction. It could have taken the League Leaders’ Shield away from Matty Peet’s side which would have altered the playoff match-ups and then who knows? Gildart couldn’t quite help Rovers then, but he will look to do so in 2024 now that his loan spell with the Leopards has come to an end. The ex-Wigan centre will look to reestablish himself among Super League’s top centres after a year in the NRL saw him make just eight appearances for Wests Tigers and a couple more on loan with Sydney Roosters.

Peta Hiku is another centre with both NRL and Super League experience. He has bounced around the Australian competition, turning out for all of Manly Sea Eagles, Penrith Panthers, New Zealand Warriors and North Queensland Cowboys before an 11-match stint at Warrington yielded an impressive 10 tries. Hiku is 31 now but should still have plenty to offer the Rovers back line over the three years of his contract. 

As we will see later there have been some pretty key departures in the KR halves so it’s handy that Peters has managed to bring in Tyrone May from Catalans Dragons. May played in the Dragons’ Grand Final defeat by Wigan and also in Penrith’s triumphant NRL Grand Final victory over South Sydney in 2021. May featured 45 times across two seasons in France and has agreed a two-year contract with Rovers.  A fine player in his own right, his Grand Final experience could prove vital to a side which so far has fallen short in the very biggest games. 

Up front former Gold Coast Titans prop Jai Whitbread has been one of few shining lights over a difficult couple of years for Wakefield which saw them relegated to the Championship at the end of the last campaign. Joining him will be his former Trinity team-mate Kelepi Tanginoa who has been with the West Yorkshire club for five seasons. A versatile, impactful forward, Tanginoa has also made NRL appearances for Parramatta Eels, North Queensland Cowboys and Manly Sea Eagles. The pair should add quality and experience to a front row which also includes ex-Canterbury Bulldog and Newcastle Knight Sauaso Sue, George King and Sam Luckley.

All of those signings look to have a fair chance of success but there may be an element of risk with others. Niall Evalds is a fine fullback when at his best. But having been a regular for Salford and playing in their 2019 Grand Final and 2020 Challenge Cup final losses he took to the field just 37 times in three seasons at Castleford. He managed only seven appearances last term. Now 30, there has to be a doubt over whether the KR fans will see him at his best.

It’s never a guarantee that prominent Championship players will make it in the top flight but Peters  has taken a chance on a couple. Ajahni (AJ) Wallace is a Jamaican international back rower who arrives from Bradford Bulls. At only 20 years of age he has time on his side but as we sit here today the former England youth international has only two professional seasons and 42 games under his belt with the Bulls. His impact may not be immediate. 

Hooker Reiss Butterworth did appear twice for Huddersfield Giants where he spent the 2019 and 2020 seasons but has mostly been a Championship fixture. He began at Bradford before loan spells with Batley and York led to a move to Dewsbury where he has spent the last three seasons. At 25, he now has the opportunity to make an impression at the highest level domestically.

The final Rovers recruit was an unexpected one which could turn out to be a massive bonus for Peters’ side. Joe Burgess played in two Grand Finals and a Challenge Cup final for Wigan. He lost the lot, but we’ll gloss over that and instead remind you that he bagged a ridiculous 52 tries in 55 matches in his first spell with the Warriors before another 51 tries in 71 games in his second. He is joint 44th on the all-time list of Super League try scorers having also scored 23 in 47 appearances for Salford since 2021.

Which is why his exit from the Red Devils and his availability for Rovers was so surprising. Salford released Burgess, stating that his conduct was not consistent with the club’s standards. They neglected to elaborate. But if Burgess can behave in accordance with Rovers’ standards then they will have bagged themselves one of the fastest wingers on either side of the world and a prolific try scorer.

So Who’s Out…?

Those of you paying full attention will remember that I mentioned that there have been halfback departures in the offseason. Perhaps the most troubling of these from a Robins point of view is the loan deal which will see Jordan Abdull turn out for Catalans Dragons in 2024. 

Abdull was blossoming into one of the league’s best game managers, possessing an incredible kicking game. However, injury restricted him to only 14 games in 2023 during which he never really produced his absolute best. Hampered by a torn quad muscle for much of the year he did feature towards the back end of the campaign and played in that semi-final defeat to Wigan. Yet it seems clear that Peters has some doubts over him at the moment, 

Also leaving is 24 year-old Rowan Milnes who heads to Castleford. Millnes often found it difficult to break into the Rovers first team ahead of Abdull, Mikey Lewis and Brad Schneider and would have had no guarantees of cracking the code this year with May now around. Schneider was the very definition of hit and miss for KR last season but apparently did enough to persuade three-in-a-row NRL champions Penrith Panthers to offer him a deal. Only three in a row? Pah! Pathetic.

The availability of Burgess is particularly handy for Peters having seen Ethan Ryan join Salford Red Devils, while the back division has also lost Sam Wood who follows Milne to the Tigers. Fullback Jack Walker - once the next big thing at Leeds - has crossed the city of Hull to join FC after only one season and 10 appearances for Rovers. Veteran Jimmy Keinhorst will be part of York Knights’ Championship effort but by far and away the biggest loss from the three-quarter line will be that of Shaun Kenny-Dowall.

The former Sydney Roosters centre is a shining example of the good things that can happen if you find yourself an NRL star who still has hunger and desire and a healthy respect for the northern hemisphere competition. He has been outstanding for KR through four seasons and 93 appearances. Alongside another retiree - back rower Kane Linnett - Kenny-Dowall has been instrumental in changing the culture at the club. Though they haven’t quite taken that final step and picked up any silverware, they now at least conceive that it is possible. It hasn’t really felt like that for Robins fans since the 80s.

As well as Linnett the pack will be shorn of the services of front rower Rhys Kennedy who has joined London Broncos for what looks certain to be their only top flight campaign for the foreseeable future. A former Brisbane Bronco, Kennedy made 26 appearances in his only season with Rovers. Yet together with Linnett that’s over 230 games worth of NRL experience that has walked through the exit door. Those left behind will have to step up. 

Former Saint Greg Richards is not among them. He endured a difficult two season stay on Humberside in which he managed only 15 appearances for the Robins. He had a dual registration spell at Dewsbury and went on loan to Toulouse. Now 28, the man who made 70 appearances for Saints between 2013-17 has signed permanently for the French Championship side as they continue to reload following their 2022 relegation from Super League. 

There is one other notable departure as second rower Luis Johnson was released after three seasons. The former Warrington man has been picked up by Castleford Tigers.

What’s The Expectation?

Possibly higher than at any time since the 1980s. If you can get to a Challenge Cup final and you can get within 80 minutes of a Super League Grand Final then why can’t you take that extra step or two? Well…let’s look at Salford. They made the Grand Final in 2019 and although they reached Wembley in 2020 they could only finish ninth in the league standings that year. 

All of Jake Bibby, Jackson Hastings, George Griffin, Derrell Olpherts and Josh Jones moved on from the Red Devils after the 2019 season and the likes of Kevin Brown, Pauli Pauli, Chris Atkin and James Greenwood came in. It is clear that the Salford 2020 squad was a very different one from that of a year previously. That would be the concern for Rovers fans with 13 players leaving ahead of 2024 and nine new faces arriving. Peters will need to get them to gel to repeat let alone better the feats of a year ago.

The start to the season is a headline maker with a visit to FC in the Hull derby in round one on February 15. Rovers then welcome Leeds, Warrington and FC (again) in their first three home games. A stretch between April 20 and May 4 will really test Peters’ side as they visit the Dragons and host both Wigan and St Helens in that period. 

The run-in also features the champions and the winners of the previous four titles as KR visit Saints on August 23 and Wigan on September 6. Home games against Salford and Leigh could be crucial to their playoff hopes before they are visited by the Rhinos on the final weekend.

What Will Really Happen?

Peters will have every faith that he can get another tune out of this side. After all their semi-final loss to Wigan was the last act of a season in which they had improved on an eighth placed finish in 2022. The former Gateshead and Wigan halfback seems a very progressive coach. If anyone can restore the glory days to the club it might well be him.

A huge amount seems to rest on how well Lewis and May can hit it off. There is little depth behind them with Abdull, Schneider and Millnes all gone. Kenny-Dowall and Linnett’s influence will also be missed. Hiku was a regular in the NRL last year and together with Gildart could provide excitement in the back-line.

Rovers should be challenging for the playoffs again and they may well get in. I’m just not sure they’ve made the right moves to repeat last year’s heroics especially considering that the likes of Leeds and Warrington just have to improve. Don’t they? If not then perhaps the sky is the limit for Rovers. But if those clubs and even the other lot across Hull start playing in a manner which befits their standing in the game then life will be more difficult. The top six might be as good as it gets this time around.