Leigh Leopards’ best Super League 17 of all-time including cult heroes aplenty
From left to right: John Asiata, Lachlan Lam and Edwin Ipape in action for Leigh Leopards
145 players have taken to the field at least once in Super League for Leigh: but what would the Leopards’ best top-flight 17 of the summer era look like?
Prior to their most recent return in 2023, Leigh‘s time in Super League had been short and not very sweet.
Three times while under the ‘Centurions’ tagline, they had risen into the top tier – 2005, 2017 and 2021 – but never managed to survive.
Then came the new era. The Leopards arrived, lifted the Challenge Cup and have featured in the Super League play-offs for three seasons on the spin.
It’s no surprise therefore that this team almost entirely comprises of modern-day stars, but without further ado, here is our take on Leigh’s best Super League 17 of all-time…
1. Gareth O’Brien
O’Brien should be in the halves alongside (spoiler alert) Lachlan Lam, but there’s no one better to slot in at full-back, at least not yet. Only 16 players have started at least one Super League game in the #1 role for Leigh, and behind O’Brien, it’d be either David Armstrong or Bailey Hodgson. Both are current team-mates of his, but neither have earned a spot in this squad just yet, for us.
2. Keanan Brand
Brand first played in Super League for Leigh back in 2021, then on loan from Warrington. He scored just one try in 12 games for the Centurions that year, and it took him until 2025 to become a regular starter in the top-flight as a Leopards, but he has gone on to notch 16 in his last 16 Super League games and become a mainstay in Adrian Lam’s side. Deserved of this spot.
3. Ricky Leutele
The first man in this squad who has now departed Leyth town is Leutele, who enjoyed a successful two-year stint with the Leopards between 2023 and 2024. Only a pretty serious injury stopped him being an ever-present across those two seasons, and also robbed him of featuring in the Challenge Cup final. Nonetheless, a seriously professional operator.
4. Umyla Hanley
Hanley has become a key part of Leigh’s side, and the Leopards have moved quickly to tie him down until the end of 2028 as a result. The centre had been set to hang up his boots before Adrian Lam got in touch ahead of 2023, and though he had to bide his time, he’s now started more Super League games at centre for Leigh (38) than anyone else bar Leutele (47)!
5. Josh Charnley
2026 may well prove to be Charnley’s last season in a Leigh shirt and indeed his last in Super League. One of the very top wingers of the modern era, he’s scored 53 tries in 69 Super League appearances for the Leopards so far, and he’ll fancy trying to rack up a few more as he attempts to take the competition’s all-time record off Ryan Hall.
6. Ben Reynolds
In truth, it’d be Gareth O’Brien in here and in 12 months time, it may well be once Armstrong/Hodgson have claimed the full-back role. But with O’Brien otherwise occupied for now, the list of those who have featured at #6 in Super League for Leigh isn’t a particularly glamorous one.
Reynolds has actually featured at five-eighth more than anyone else, starting 46 top-flight games there for the club between 2017 and 2023. A Challenge Cup winner and a stalwart of Leyth town.
7. Lachlan Lam
Lam junior arrived midway through 2022, reuniting with dad Adrian in the process, and has gone on to put himself in the argument around Leigh’s greatest player of all-time. That can be debated, but his place in this side can’t. 2025 saw him register the second-most assists of anyone in a single Super League season ever. Freakishly good.
8. Tom Amone
Powerhouse Amone departed Leigh at the end of the 2024 campaign and headed back to the NRL as Canterbury Bulldogs snapped him up. That move didn’t work out, but the fact he arrived at the LSV as a struggling front-rower and earned himself an NRL deal a few years later is testament to the impact he had on the Leopards. A cult hero, and forever will be one.
9. Edwin Ipape
The king of LeighNG. There’s nothing we can say about Ipape that hasn’t been said before. He’s the best hooker in Super League, and has one of the best tales in the game. Alongside fellow Kumul Lam in the debate around the club’s best-ever player, without doubt.
10. Robbie Mulhern
Mulhern has always been a prop with potential, but his time at Leigh has helped him to fulfil that, earning a recall into the England squad at the end of 2024 and now even being linked with NRL clubs. Another diamond in the rough nurtured into a Leopards mainstay.
11. Owen Trout
It’s a very similar story for versatile forward Trout, who earned his England debut last autumn and made it in an Ashes Series against Australia. He may have dreamed of this path when he signed for Leigh ahead of 2024, but we’re not sure many would have seen his trajectory being as upward as it has been, credit to him.
12. Kai O’Donnell
O’Donnell was an unknown quantity when he arrived in Leigh, and left having earned himself an NRL deal with North Queensland Cowboys at the end of 2024. His time in Super League with the Leopards was relatively short, but his impact during that period was absolutely monumental.
13. John Asiata (Captain)
Asiata is a former NRL Grand Final winner, but openly admitted he thought his career was done before Leigh came calling in 2022. He became the Leopards’ skipper in Super League and delivered quality consistently, so much so that he earned a bumper long-term deal from Hull FC. What a player!
Bench: Joe Ofahengaue, Frankie Halton, Matt Davis, Micky Higham
Ofahengaue’s inclusion speaks for itself, he arrived at Leigh midway through 2025 and transformed the Leopards’ year. We’ve no doubt he might be in the starting 13 if we were to re-do this in 12 months’ time.
Hometown hero Halton is Mr Reliable, and has been consistently great since joining the Leopards midway through 2023. It’s only the quality in that starting back-row that’s kept him out of the 13.
There are no frills with Davis, but he offers utterly ridiculous utility value and will do a job off the bench wherever he’s asked to, which is why he’s become such a key member in Lam’s squad.
Cult hero Higham only played in Super League for Leigh in 2017, and his inclusion is perhaps from a sentimental point of view, but seriously who is going to take him out of a Leyth squad? Not us.
