Leigh Leopards coach addresses Kai O’Donnell pursuit as NRL interest revealed

Leigh Leopards boss Adrian Lam admits he’d love to secure Kai O’Donnell’s return, but insists there are still opportunities for him to remain in the NRL next season.

Brisbane-born O’Donnell, who made his NRL debut for Canberra Raiders back in 2020, enjoyed a highly successful three-season stint at Leigh between 2022 and 2024.

Earning promotion to Super League and winning the Challenge Cup, the Australian quickly established himself among Super League’s best back-rowers and earned a return to the NRL ahead of 2025 with North Queensland Cowboys.

The 27-year-old is currently off-contract though, and LoveRugbyLeague exclusively revealed earlier this week that if he were to return to Super League in 2027, an agreement had already been made with Leigh that they would be the club he joined.

But Leopards head coach Lam has tempered excitement, at least for now, by insisting O’Donnell has opportunities to stay Down Under.

‘He’d be great to have here… I believe there are opportunities for him still in the NRL’

Having featured four times in the NRL for Canberra in 2020, O’Donnell has so far played 23 times in Australia’s premier competition for the Cowboys, taking his career appearance tally at first-grade level up to 104.

Speaking on Wednesday afternoon, Leigh boss Lam said: “Anyone that’s available off-contract is always linked to Leigh Leopards.

“But Kai obviously being a player from our Challenge Cup-winning era and being very close friends with a lot of our players, he’d be great to have here.

“We’ll discuss that if it comes up, because I believe there are opportunities for him still in the NRL.

“If there’s a move to Super League, we’ll get involved in some way and hopefully we can have that happen, because I know Derek (Beaumont, owner) is a very big fan of Kai’s and the fans love him.”

O’Donnell scored 31 tries in his 77 appearances across all competitions for Leigh, including four in one game at the Leopards’ Den against Hull FC back in August 2024.

Lam added: “As a player, I think he’s the ultimate professional.

“When we’ve lost those players (from the Challenge Cup winning squad) over the last two or three years, if there’s one we could choose to bring back, it’d probably be him.

“But that opportunity won’t come about unless he’s interested in a move to Super League.

“No doubt conversations may happen in the next couple of weeks if that’s an opportunity for us. We certainly won’t miss (out on) talking to him.”

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