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.
2024 Season Review
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.
Transfers Out
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
Transfers In
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.
2025 Predictions
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.
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.
J7P1 wrote: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
Binosh wrote: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.
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