Morgan Gannon on being seen as a future Leeds Rhinos captain

Morgan Gannon has already made 38 first team appearances for Leeds Rhinos despite only being 19.

The second-row burst onto the scene as an impressive youngster in an injury hit team against St Helens in the 2021 Challenge Cup and went on to feature quite a bit throughout that season and featured even more last year even adding try scoring to his game.

The skilful backrow has been branded by some, namely former Rhino and Sky Sports pundit Barrie McDermott, as a future Leeds Rhinos skipper however Gannon himself is not thinking about that just yet:

“At the minute I am not thinking about captaincy and stuff like that,” Gannon told Serious About Rugby League, “I am still focusing on my own game. Maybe in the future, you don’t know with how it goes. I’ve got my game to work on first before I can be leading.”

He also confirmed that as of right now he has no interest in a move to the NRL despite many believing that he will one day be pursued by clubs down under:

“Leeds is the club. I think the opportunities they have given me, I want to reward them and get them trophies. They have shown a lot of faith in me and developed me as a person and a player so it would be fitting to reward them with some trophies.”

Gannon has surprisingly played in the halves in pre-season in a bit of a positional switch.

The youngster had his say: “Even if it doesn’t work out it will grow me as a player in terms of skills and my awareness as a backrower.

“I have only played two games in the halves and enjoyed both. Eventually I think my performances will make the decision and what Rohan sees me doing. For now I’m enjoying both and happy to play in both. The six is a different role, there are different challenges.”

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind for the young man at the start of his Leeds career and he described it himself as “weird” to think about:

“It’s been weird. When I debuted it was the pandemic so there weren’t any crowds and when they came back they were limited capacity.

“It still doesn’t feel real and it’s one of them where you don’t really realise until you get to the end of the season and you look back on it and it’s quite surreal.”