Brad Arthur reveals what Leeds Rhinos must do for him to commit for 2025

After Leeds Rhinos beat Wigan Warriors 30-4, head coach Brad Arthur has called on his players to keep replicating performances at such a level in order for him to commit his future to the club.

Currently, Arthur is only contracted until the end of the season but he’s left the door wide open about a longer stay, previously claiming that he’s in “no rush to leave” before adding this week that despite NRL ambitions he’d be open to ‘sticking around’.

He revealed one of the big conditions of him sticking around as being player buy-in, stating: “I only want to stay if I feel like I can make a difference and that’s going to be determined on the playing group as well, isn’t it?”

Saturday’s showing would suggest that the players want him to stay at the club with Leeds Rhinos keeping their playoff hopes alive by defeating champions Wigan Warriors handily at Headingley.

Speaking on Sky Sports immediately after the win, it was put to him that the players had answered his message but Arthur revealed what needs to happen for him to stay.

“They need to show me that again next week and then the week after that,” he responded.

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Leeds Rhinos ‘worked their backsides off’

If last week’s disappointing loss to Salford Red Devils looked to close the door on any playoff hopes, this performance made it clear that Leeds Rhinos are still very much in the hunt.

They’ll likely need to win five of their six remaining fixtures, or four and hope that results elsewhere go their way, but in terms of one-off performances, they’ll likely be unable to replicate how good they were against Wigan.

Despite their near-flawless performance, Arthur noted a few sticking points that he wants to see improvement in.

He explained: “We’ve been chasing that 80-minute effort and I thought we did that today. I’m disappointed that we leaked a try because I felt like we’d done enough and we’d worked hard enough.

“We lacked a little bit of detail at times under pressure, but we’re getting better at it and you can see some signs. I just think that when we get a little bit tired, sometimes our markers still fall backwards instead of our line meeting them.”

Despite the nit-picking, he did concede that it was “very hard” to be critical given the impressive nature of the performance.

“We got a little bit loose around the play the ball area but it’s very hard for me to be critical because they’ve worked their backsides off today.”

Leeds will look to do the same to Warrington Wolves on Saturday at Magic Weekend with the Rhinos set to have home-city advantage with the games played at Elland Road.