Leigh Leopards’ all-time Super League Dream Team including current stars and cult heroes

Leigh are gearing up for their sixth top-flight campaign in the summer era, and their third successive at the top table. Here, we put together their all-time Super League XIII.

As you’d expect, there are plenty of the club’s modern-day heroes in there who have donned Leopard print since the club’s rebrand upon their return to Super League in 2023.

But we’ve thrown a few ‘Centurions’ men in there too, and with good reason, as we’ll get onto.

Without further ado, here is Leigh‘s all-time Super League XIII…

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1. Neil Turley

Turley spent his entire club career with Leigh having been released from neighbours Wigan Warriors as a youngster. Breaking club records aplenty while with the Centurions, the 44-year-old became a cult hero and remains one today having hung up his boots in 2006 due to a recurring back injury.

Earning honours for Lancashire and England’s under-21s, the full-back played a total of 124 games in a Leigh shirt and scored over 1,500 points. Just nine of those appearances came in Super League, but only one man has ever scored more tries for the club than him in the summer era and we’re having him in our team. Pure nostalgia.

2. Adam Higson

In terms of the ‘professional’ game, Higson made 198 senior career appearances and 165 of those came for hometown club Leigh having previously donned a shirt for community club Leigh Miners Rangers.

Scoring 75 tries for the Centurions in the process, the winger – now 37 – also had a loan stint at Swinton Lions in 2012 and then made a permanent move to Toronto Wolfpack in 2018, but returned to round off his career back at Leigh in 2020. Again, only 13 of his appearances for the club came in Super League, but we’re putting him in.

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3. Zak Hardaker

There will always be plenty of people who have something to say about Hardaker, and there certainly were when he joined Leigh ahead of the 2023 campaign, but in the two seasons the 33-year-old spent as a Leopard, we think he did enough to silence those critics.

Four successive tackles in Golden Point at Wembley helped the club to win the Challenge Cup against Hull KR, with that game undoubtedly the highlight of 54 appearances for Leigh across all competitions. His utility value was utilised well by Adrian Lam throughout his stint, and we doubt there’s many Leopards supporters who don’t wish him well at Hull FC.

4. Ricky Leutele

Leutele has been another integral part of Lam’s side over the last two years, recovering from a pretty serious spinal cord injury sustained midway through the 2023 campaign to enjoy another starring role in a 2024 season which saw Leigh reach the Super League play-off semi-finals.

Now 34, the seven-time Samoa international made exactly 50 appearances for the Leopards, scoring 15 tries in the process including a memorable one against St Helens in his final home game. He remains without a club for 2025, and whoever he ends up signing for will be getting a terrific servant.

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5. Josh Charnley

Veteran winger Charnley arrived at Leigh midway through the 2022 campaign looking to reinvigorate his career, and he’s done just that. Scoring far more tries than anyone else for the Leopards since joining, he’s already the club’s top Super League try-scorer by some distance.

Across all competitions, the 11-time England international has now crossed the whitewash 55 times in 67 appearances for the Leopards. He turned 33 in June, but shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, and will undoubtedly end up as Super League’s top try-scorer of all-time in the near future.

6. Ryan Brierley

We mentioned one man had scored more tries for Leigh in the summer era than Neil Turley, and it’s this man. Across three separate stints, nine-time Scotland international Brierley crossed the whitewash 154 times in 156 appearances for the Centurions, eventually departing for Salford Red Devils at the end of a 2021 campaign which saw Leigh relegated.

The 32-year-old remains with Salford today, where he is a fans’ favourite. We don’t think his spot in this team can be disputed, though we do acknowledge that only 17 of his appearances for Leigh came in Super League.

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7. Lachlan Lam

Lam was among the most in-demand stars in Super League at one point this year, and that exemplifies just how big of a role he’s had for Leigh over the last few years. Reuniting with dad and Leopards boss Adrian, the half-back arrived at the LSV midway through the 2022 campaign and has now made 71 appearances for the club across all competitions.

Now a 13-time Papua New Guinea international, the playmaker will forever be written into Leigh folklore having kicked the drop goal that won them the Challenge Cup in 2023, also scooping the Lance Todd Trophy from that final under the arch. At 26, he’s entering his prime, and the Leopards will do well to keep hold of him beyond the end of the upcoming 2025 campaign.

8. Tom Amone

The majority of the forward pack in this Dream Team are modern-day Leyth icons, and Amone – who will turn 28 later this week – kicks things off having now departed for the NRL and Canterbury Bulldogs. He earned that move back Down Under having established himself as one of the premium front-rowers in Super League.

Arriving in the Championship, he and Leigh have been on an incredible journey over the last three seasons, and his time at the club comes to an end having featured 87 times across all competitions, scoring 17 tries. Such is the connection between him and the club, we wouldn’t be surprised to see him back in a Leopards shirt before his career ends, either.

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9. Edwin Ipape

If you need any individual success story to evidence just how far Leigh have come, it’s Ipape. The Mount Hagen native was an unknown quantity when the then-Centurions brought him over ahead of the 2022 Championship campaign, but is now – at least in our opinion – the very best hooker in Super League.

A ten-time Kumuls international, Ipape is an absolute powerhouse, a rock in both defence and attack. Leigh loves him and he loves Leigh, not just the club but the town too. 37 tries in 74 appearances, a Challenge Cup winners’ medal, a Dream Team inclusion and a hit chant. When he eventually leaves, it will be a sad, sad day for all connected to the club.

10. Robbie Mulhern

Mulhern had already made close to 200 senior appearances in the British game when Leigh snapped him up ahead of the 2023 campaign, but boss Lam appears to have got the best out of the prop, and he’s probably never been in better form.

With 54 games now played for the Leopards in total across all competitions, that Challenge Cup-winning campaign in 2023 ended with the 30-year-old getting back into the England setup, and he was unfortunate to miss out on the squad for this autumn’s Samoa Test Series.

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11. Kai O’Donnell

We’re not sure how any club could replace O’Donnell, but Leigh need to because the back-rower has now returned Down Under and joined North Queensland Cowboys. His story is another bittersweet one, because the Leopards have transformed his career and paid the price in terms of losing him.

That always seems to be the way, but everyone connected to Leigh – and O’Donnell himself – can reflect on his time in the North West with pride. The 25-year-old is another who arrived in the Championship, with the Australian scoring 31 tries in 77 appearances for the club across all competitions by the time his departure came.

12. James Bell

There aren’t many players who move from the team that got relegated to the Super League champions, but Bell did just that when he joined St Helens from Leigh. The utility forward had spent just a sole season with the Centurions, but stood out above the rest in 2021, and was snapped up by Saints on the back of that campaign.

The New Zealand-born Scotland international scored a single try in 18 appearances across all competitions for Leigh, and then returned as a loanee the following year, playing a further two games. Without that 2021 campaign though, we’d probably never have seen him tearing it up at the top end of the competition with Saints.

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13. John Asiata

Rounding the 13 off, there was only ever going to be one man at loose forward. 31-year-old Asiata was – self-admittedly – handed a lifeline by Leigh in 2022 when he was told he couldn’t play in the NRL due to a COVID-19 vaccination-related issue, and is another whose career was reinvigorated at the LSV.

The Leopards got a one-time NRL champion, and in the three years he spent in the North West, he hit some of the best form of his entire career. Scoring ten tries in 76 appearances, he earned a recall into the Samoa team, and with the fallout which surrounded his departure to Hull FC now seemingly over, there’s no doubt he’ll be remembered fondly by all connected to Leigh.

Head coach: Adrian Lam

This was the easiest choice of the lot. Every man who has tried to keep Leigh in Super League before Lam failed, and not only did he keep the Leopards up in 2023, he won them the Challenge Cup and finished in the play-offs.

On top of an 1895 Cup triumph and promotion the year prior, he then repeated the feat of a play-off finish in 2024, going one better than 2023 to reach the semi-finals for the first time in the club’s history.

Like son Lachlan, 54-year-old Lam Sr. has been a man in demand numerous times over the last few years, but has now committed to Leigh with a contract until the end of the 2027 campaign. Whatever business the club does between now and then, that will be right up there with the best.

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Honourable Mentions

We didn’t want to pick out a bench per se, but there are people we simply couldn’t not give a mention to.

Those chosen above have been picked above them, but this group are all utter cult heroes and arguably club icons.

• Harrison Hansen – 22 tries in 84 appearances
• Micky Higham – 40 tries in 154 appearances
• Gregg McNally – 111 tries in 176 appearances
• Ben Reynolds – 49 tries in 148 appearances
• Martyn Ridyard – 80 tries and 838 goals in 250 appearances