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Leigh Leopards star reveals secret ingredient club have in “bucket loads” that they lacked in 2025

Leigh Leopards star Lachlan Lam has revealed the secret ingredient that the club lacked in 2025 which they now boast in “bucket loads” as he and Josh Charnley assessed the upcoming season.

Lam and Charnley, who are now among the Leopards’ senior players following multiple stars leaving, have spoken on The Sportsman Rugby League YouTube channel to look ahead to the upcoming Super League season.

Leigh have seen players such as John Asiata, Ricky Leutele, Tom Amone and Zak Hardaker all leave whilst their recruitment has been focused on building for the future.

That’s something Charnley alluded to when stating: “We’ve lost a lot of experience in our team this year and we’ve recruited a lot of young kids which has made the camp more competitive so I’m excited and looking forward to the year.

“I think I’m the oldest in the team now which is a bit of a shock so I’ve got to try and lead by example.”

Josh Charnley on Leigh Leopards’ belief in 2025

- 27/09/2024 - Rugby League - Betfred Super League Eliminator - Salford Red Devils v Leigh Leopards - Salford Stadium, Eccles, England - Leigh Leopards' Josh Charnley scores the 1st try

Credit: Paul Currie/SWpix.com

Charnley, who will turn 34 in 2025, is still among one of Super League’s finest wingers and he highlighted that when moving into second place on the all-time try-scoring charts last year. That came in the latter part of the season when Leigh started to find their groove, something he spoke on as he reflected on 2024.

He explained: “We started off really poorly. I think we had a lot of our spine players injured through the first 12 weeks of the season so we didn’t really get off to a good start.

“We knew once we had players back that we’d start rolling teams, which we did. I think we had to win 14 of the last 16 games to get into the play-offs and we just took each game as it came and got the job done.”

That run of games saw just Grand Finalists Wigan Warriors and Hull KR beat the Leopards and Charnley has argued that Adrian Lam’s side will take great confidence from it, despite their much-changed line-up in 2025.

The winger said: “We can take a lot of confidence from the way that we played. Teams will know that Leigh’s style of play is a bit of a mind-boggle because we can play from anywhere.”

“Bucket loads” – Leigh Leopards star picks out key attribute to boost club

Leigh Leopards' Lachlan Lam

Credit: Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com

One of the players who was key during that run of form was playmaker Lachlan Lam and the responsibility to create will fall upon him once again in 2025 following the retirement of Matt Moylan.

Lam bemoaned the club’s injury record of late but reasoned it was also a major motivator: “We didn’t have a good start to the year, probably in both years (2023 and 2024), because of injuries but we heard the outside noise and people writing us off so I think that helped motivate us as well.

“It was good to perform at the back end of the year. We went one step further than the ’23 season so this year we’ll try and go one more.”

Whilst plenty has been lost in terms of experience at Leigh, they have added one thing that they lacked in 2025 with Lam labelling pace as the secret ingredient that the Leopards have now added.

He explained: “We were a team lacking a bit of speed and we’ve added that in bucket loads so it will be exciting for you guys to watch.”

The Papua New Guinean international, who is off contract at the end of the year, also spoke on the internal belief at the club – something he thinks allows owner Derek Beaumont to be brash and promote the brand as he does.

Lam stated: “When we went through that bad slump last year we knew what we were doing and where we were getting to. We’re confident in each other and I think that’s why it seems that way when we talk.

“Regardless of the stage, the band, the fireworks, the show, the jersey, Derek being Derek, I think we all work very hard and Derek understands that so that allows him to do that side and we take care of the other side.”

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. William friar

    January 29, 2025 at 4:09 pm

    Think this year they can get results sooner than previous 2 years. with new players it will need a few good hard games for them to get together as a regular squad but it will come .we lacked pace in the middle last year so looking forward to see if we have any this year. My grand daughter and myself will be there cheering for them whatever happens.

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