Brad Arthur’s in-tray – what the Leeds Rhinos boss must do ahead of 2025

Brad Arthur’s Leeds Rhinos came tantalisingly close to making the play-offs this year, eventually missing out by just two points.

They showed signs of improvement under Brad Arthur, with an incredible 30-4 victory over Wigan Warriors a particular highlight of his time at the club so far.

However, it wasn’t quite enough, and they now must focus their attention on 2025.

What must Brad Arthur do ahead of next season in order to make his side a force to be reckoned with?

1. Reduce the Leeds Rhinos error count

This is a theme that has been running throughout the season. The Rhinos are top in the league for errors made in 2024, with 301- ahead of Catalans Dragons on 288.

As well as this, they’re high on the number of penalties they’ve given away, and this is something that Brad Arthur must work to stamp out next season.

They’re under the cosh a lot of the time, shown by the fact that they made the third-highest number of tackles in the league, only behind London Broncos and Huddersfield Giants, and ahead of Hull FC and Castleford Tigers.

This was highlighted particularly in their most recent trip to Plough Lane, where they had a completion rate of just 56% and 16 errors across the game. The Broncos were impressive at times and spirited, but their game was error-stricken as well, and shouldn’t have been able to take the game as far as they did.

2. Keep a consistent prop pairing

This speaks for itself, really.

Each player individually made metres for the Rhinos  – shown by having the third-highest average gain per carry – yet they struggled without the pairing of Mikolaj Oledzki and Justin Sangare, and even with them, it wasn’t a

There were seven different props to start for the Rhinos, but another is needed, especially losing the power elsewhere in the pack with Rhyse Martin’s departure.

3. Keep the leads, Rhinos

The Rhinos were ahead in eight of their 13 defeats this year – if they could have help on to even a quarter of those leads, they would have been in the play-offs now.

A particular game where this was costly was against Salford Red Devils, where they gave up a 12-0 lead and lost 22-16.

Brad Arthur needs to find a way to keep his team focused when they have an early advantage.

4. Improve the Leeds Rhinos away form

Credit: John Clifton/SWpix.com

Out of their final six home games, Leeds Rhinos won five – yet they only managed to win one of their final six away games.

If they had a similar record away towards the end of the campaign, they would have been on 32 points, level with Salford Red Devils in fourth.