Jukes: Leigh are not arrogant

Leigh head coach Neil Jukes says the Centurions are ambitious not arrogant as they aim to secure a place in Super League for next year.

Leigh have won their third League Leader’s Shield in a row in the Championship.

Now they head into the Middle 8s with the goal of promotion firmly in their sights.

“We do believe, we’re not arrogant i don’t think, we’re ambitious and we don’t think we should be in there because we’ve got nice facilities and some good players,” Jukes said.

“We want to be there because we’re ambitious.

“We want to work hard and prepare hard and be as hard on ourselves and ruthless on making sure that we do everything we can possibly on the field and away from the field to give us the best possible chance to do it.”

The Centurions were handed the Shield last Sunday after their win over Dewsbury.

“We had a few beers on Sunday to celebrate the hard work,” Juke said.

“They’ve had to work hard certainly to win the League by the year on 10 points.

“They’ve had to work hard to achieve that but when we meet up on Friday and sit down and well look at where we’re at were on zero points, same as everyone else.

“It’s what’s we do now and what we do next that’s important.”

Leigh have brought in Danny Tickle, Antoni Maria and Mitch Brown in the past few weeks.

Jukes said the Centurions have not resorted to panic buying.
 
“We’ve got 27 players. We recruited well not just panic buying, there some guys in a few areas that weve been looking at for a while.

“I think as a team and how we’ve rotated our squad i think we’re in a lot better position than we were last year, but certainly the challenge is going to be hard with the teams that are in there.”