Leigh Leopards owner explains Ethan O’Neill exit as salary cap dilemma revealed

Leigh Leopards owner Derek Beaumont has suggested a salary cap squeeze was a contributing factor to the decision to let forward Ethan O’Neill leave the club and join Leeds Rhinos – and admits the club’s success will lead to more difficult conversations surrounding players.

O’Neill has signed for the Rhinos on a long-term deal in one of the surprise transfers of the off-season so far, after Leigh granted him permission to exit the final season of his contract with the Leopards.

Beaumont, speaking to the club’s TV channel about that decision, explained that with Leigh coach Adrian Lam bringing the best out of several players in their squad, it inevitably leads to some of those stars requiring contractual upgrades.

That means that Leigh may face difficult decisions on recruitment and retention like the one posed with O’Neill, with Beaumont admitting Lam held an ‘honest conversation’ with O’Neill about his role in the Leopards’ squad.

And, citing the example of Umyla Hanley – who has become one of the standout centres in Super League since joining Leigh – he admitted the club’s success leads to difficulties with the salary cap.

Beaumont explained: “The difficulty is it’s a salary cap sport – which it needs to be. But there’s only so many players we can keep in the squad and as we get players that are wanted by other teams because our coach is very good at developing players; I’ll use Umyla Hanley as an example.

“He was in the Dream Team last season, was released by Wigan because he wasn’t getting in there and Adrian saw something in him. He created a player who was a Dream team player last year. He’s contracted to us next year but is the the right level?

“These players want rewarding correctly and extended deals beyond that. It’s a moving target all the time. The more people who want to bid for your players, the ore value they get, the less room there is for a number of players.”

In explaining how that impacted the O’Neill exit, Beaumont added: “You end up having to let some people go unfortunately, even when they’re still contracted.

“That’s always a tough decision, and tough for the coach to make that decision. But one thing Adrian is, is extremely honest and that’s the biggest asset to any coach. Players just want to know.

“If you take Ethan O’Neill as an example, I know there’s been a bit of unrest around that one. Ethan is a champion bloke and a favourite of the fans and I can see that by the membership data, and who wanted his name on their shirt. We had to make a couple of calls around that because we knew what was happening before Leeds decided to announce it.

“It’s a tough one. Ethan unfortunately wasn’t able to push into the plans and Adrian had an honest conversation with him. We were aware of the fact that Leeds had an interest and we were honest with Ethan.

“We made him aware of that and we were made up he’s got a longer deal at a top Super League club. As I said to him, four years ago he wouldn’t have considered Leigh against Leeds, so it’s a big club that he’s going to where he’ll have opportunity perhaps more than he would have had here. His last message to me was, I’ll always be a Leyther.”