Super League schedule lacks ‘common sense’, says leading coach
Leigh Leopards head coach Adrian Lam.
Leigh Leopards coach Adrian Lam has queried the structure of Super League’s fixture scheduling in its current guise: saying it lacks ‘common sense’.
The Leopards travel to West Yorkshire tonight to take on Leeds Rhinos for the first time this season – despite having already played teams including Catalans Dragons three times in 2025.
There are other examples of a lop-sided fixture calendar too, with St Helens facing Salford this weekend for the third time this year and the second time this month alone.
With loop fixtures again causing chaos to the calendar, Lam admitted his preference would be a more straightforward system where every team played each other once, before repeating that and then closing the season with the extra loop games.
“We’ve talked about this before,” he said. “I don’t get it. I’m a bit of a stickler for old school. We should play everyone once, and then everyone twice and then play the last group (of games) right at the end.
“That’s how you get an even ladder and even performance. We’ve played Catalans three times before playing Leeds once.. how does that make sense?
“I know there are bigger things to worry about with the RFL at the moment but when you look at the ladder and the fairness of the comp, it only makes sense you play everyone once before you play someone three times.
“That’s just common sense.”
Lam has also called on his players to not be content with where they sit in the table ahead of Friday’s trip to AMT Headingley: where a win would strengthen their grip on third spot.
He said: “We’ve worked hard to get into third spot. The mentality here at Leigh has been simply being happy to be here.
“But we see it as a club to strive to be better and be the best in the competition. It might take four weeks, four months or four years, but I want people to start thinking differently and be the best.
“If that’s to be the case, we’ve got to do things we’ve never done before.”
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