There’s an interesting trend happening at Leeds in so far as plenty of their former players’ sons are joining the Rhinos academy.
Take Jack Sinfield for instance, the young halfback has shown huge potential in his three appearances in 2022 and is of course the son of Leeds legend Kevin Sinfield OBE who captained the club to seven Super League titles from 2004-15.
Also in the current first team squad is loose-forward Oli Field who is the son of Jamie Field. Oli may be yet to play for the first team but has huge potential.
Meanwhile, Morgan Gannon is the son of former Halifax man Jim Gannon and is excelling at Leeds despite being 18. Also in the academy is the son of David Gibbons. One of the Gibbons twins alongside brother Anthony, the two played for Leeds in 1996 – the first Super League season.
His son Joe is a highly thought of member of the Leeds academy and has shone for the reserves in 2022. He was recently joined by brother David who is currently at Hunslet but stepped up to play for the Rhinos reserves recently.
Lower down in the academy are two sons of Leeds’ golden generation. 2004 Harry Sunderland Award winner, four time Super League Champion and two time Grand Final try scorer Matt Diskin’s son Joe has made his debut for the club’s academy side as has Lore Jones-Buchanan the son of Jamie Jones-Buchanan who spent 20 years at the club winning seven Grand Finals.
Now his brother Dacx has also joined the Leeds academy being one of 15 players Leeds have today announced will be joining their scholarship set up in 2023.
The full list is as follows with two players from Oulton Raiders who produced the likes of Ryan Hall, Ash Handley and Jack Walker whilst King Cross has three players with Dacx Jones-Buchanan’s Stanningley the best represented side with four players:
Luke Fagan (Stanningley)
Zak Lloyd (Siddal)
Daniel Stelfox (Oulton Raiders)
Jacob Hardy (Lock Lane)
William Hunter (Shaw Cross Sharks)
James Rowney (Stanningley)
Thomas Richardson (King Cross)
Logan Staveley-Carr (Oulton Raiders)
Hughie Tinker (King Cross)
Cobi Ellis (Dewsbury Celtic)
Kai Irvine (King Cross)
Dacx Jones-Buchanan (Stanningley)
Caleb Rhodes (Birstall Victoria)
William Wilkinson (Birstall Victoria)
Harvey Butterworth (Stanningley)
Of course all these young men are their own people and will look to forge their own rugby league careers moving forward regardless of their last names. Leeds has a long tradition of producing stars through their academy such as the aforementioned Sinfield and Buchanan as well as Danny McGuire and Rob Burrow.
Any of the 15 could go onto be Leeds’ next big star and all should be excited at taking the first step into the wider rugby league world.
Good luck to them all.
