Leigh Leopards coach drops major hint on Josh Charnley future with star off-contract

Leigh head coach Adrian Lam has hinted that Josh Charnley could be set to head through the exit door at the Leopards’ Den come the end of the 2025 campaign.

Charnley joined Leigh midway through the 2022 campaign, Lam’s first season in charge, and has so far scored 56 tries in 73 appearances for the club across all competitions.

The 33-year-old winger has been plagued by injuries so far this season though, restricted to just five Super League appearances to date, and is off-contract.

That has led to question marks hanging over the veteran’s future beyond the end of the year, and now, we have a clearer vision as to the fact it may well lie away from Leigh.

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Leigh Leopards coach drops major hint on Josh Charnley future with star off-contract

A three-time Super League winner, Charnley’s next try will be his 250th in the competition. Only Leeds Rhinos legend Ryan Hall has scored more Super League tries than him.

The Leopards welcome Hull FC on Thursday night, and speaking during his pre-match press conference, boss Lam said: “Josh is a champion bloke, and he has scored some great tries (for us) in his time leading up to this moment.

“Where Josh goes to after this year, we’ll make that decision as a club in the near future.

“The issue is that we’ve got so many good outside-backs coming through with the likes of Bailey Hodgson, Keanan Brand’s now in the picture, we’ve got to fit Darnell McIntosh in there.

“Then there’s young players such as AJ Towse, who I think is a Super League player and is the future.

“There’s a lot to decide as a club, but for Josh, his career so far has been incredible. He’s a big part of what we do.”

Charnley – who also enjoyed a stint in union with Sale Sharks – has scored 311 tries in 374 senior rugby league appearances, including his 10 in 11 games for England on the international front.

Papua New Guinean Lam continued: “I think Josh knows he’s off-contract and that there’s a long season ahead of us.

“I want to play all of those players and make sure that we make the right decisions.

“We’ve probably rotated that back five more than any other club, and I don’t think we’ve had the same team for two weeks in a row yet.

“Some of that is by having our hands tied, but moving forward, I’ve spoken to our squad about me needing to change positions every now and then to give people the opportunity to hold down a spot.

“It’s something we’ve never really had at this club where there’s pressure on positions, but for our back five, that’s certainly the situation at the moment.

“No one’s guaranteed a spot there, as you’ll see tomorrow and moving forward.”

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