Leeds Rhinos branded ‘useless for years’ as pundit makes Brad Arthur pressure comment

Jon Wilkin insists Leeds Rhinos are under pressure as they prepare for the new season after several years of being ‘useless’.

The Rhinos discovered their fixtures for the 2025 Super League season this week, with Wakefield Trinity being their first opponents before they take on Salford Red Devils and Castleford Tigers and Catalans Dragons in what will be seen as a relatively comfortable start.
As such, Brad Arthur will hope to get points on the board early as he emerges from his first pre-season campaign in charge of the Rhinos.

After successive eighth placed finishes, though, Leeds have underperformed in recent Super League seasons and Arthur has been tasked with turning the club’s fortunes around. The pressure is on at Headingley then, and Sky Sports pundit Wilkin has not held back about the situation at the club.

“They’ve been useless for six years, five or six years,” Wilkin said about Leeds Rhinos when speaking about the opening round of fixtures on Sky Sports News.

“They’ve got resources coming out of their ears and the club is exceptional off the field. But I’ll tell you what, where they’ve been is just not good enough.

“They know that. If there’s one group of fans when we go round the stadiums in a year who actually support some things we have said, it’s just how poor Leeds have been.

“Brad Arthur said he’s going to change the mentality and get them rock-hard fit and that’s what they’ve been doing. They didn’t have time off after their last game last year, they trained through to the Grand Final. Not just trained, they got hammered by him, I’m talking the most disgusting physical training. I’d expect to see a fit Leeds and I’d expect to see a disciplined Leeds.

“They come up against Wakefield who we just don’t know what we’re going to see. They’ve come off the the back of a really great campaign to get into Super League but Leeds are the story because they’re under pressure from minute one, game one, Ian Blease and Brad Arthur are under pressure.”