Re: vs Sheffield (A) : Sat Jun 25, 2022 9:59 pm  

The arrogance is from being in Super League 3 times in the last 20 years. Each time Deggsy has been involved and has found the gap between SL and the Championship to be too large. The fourth attempt is a much better planned route, with an attempt to get good players with SL and NRL experience together for a promotion push and an attempt at player retention and recruitment for next season.

Leigh have done a Salford for way to long buying a new team each season. After relegation due to contracts being nulled as decreed by RFL this has been forced on the club. I think only 6 agreed new contracts for this season and the squad was wafer thin going into December. The only choice was to recruit from down under and this is where the club did due diligence. Recruiting a very experienced Management Team (a first for Leigh) then identifying players of a certain type, size and potential. They then sold a plan to players who had been side-lined mostly due to Covid and slowly built a juggernaut which plays within a strict plan conceived by Lammy as the future of the game.

The fans are ecstatic at the results and the players at the club's disposal but it is totally necessary if they are to finish above bottom of Super League. Featherstone in my opinion recruited good players but mostly discards for Super League due to their age. This would make for bottom placed finish in Super League.

I personally love some of the Yorkshire teams who survive and flourish on very small attendances, Batley and Sheffield are two examples. Leigh have traditionally been better supported and 3,500 was the usual average attendance even in a bad season. Leigh are targeting Super League survival and from experience you need to plan well in advance to stand even a slim chance of success.

Re: vs Sheffield (A) : Sun Jun 26, 2022 5:52 am  

I think I would prefer the person who made the 'arrogance' comment to explain what they mean. If they cannot explain or substantiate what they are saying, then the comment, as disrespectful as it is on the face of it, can simply be ignored.

If Hawk-eye chooses to 'put up' then we able to see what they mean and me and others here are then able to either agree with the point being made or we can take issue with it.

For the moment, Hawk-eye has come on the site, then made a fairly disparaging comment aimed at Leigh fans, without anything to back it up, and has then promptly fled.

Please come back Hawk-eye and explain what you are saying.

Re: vs Sheffield (A) : Sun Jun 26, 2022 1:35 pm  

I have a feeling that hawk-eye may have taken my post the wrong way (unless this is also an arrogant point of view, in the vein of a Carly Simon song).

To clarify, nothing in that post was meant to be taken as a slight either against the city of Sheffield (one of the best places to drink), the Don Valley area, the new stadium or the Eagles team and the club as a whole. The whole day was a thoroughly enjoyable and positive experience, as it generally is when I've been to Sheffield, including all the tonkings we've suffered too.

Watching this Leigh team it isn't arrogance, it is still surprise more than anything. Yes we've the money to be surprised by some players we've previously brought in, but that was just it, it was a select few players, we actually have a squad now and the thought that this squad (and this is an observation amongst a broad range of other team's fans I've heard) is that it is good enough to stay in Super League, which is always the goal, instead of the yo-yo and flirtations with bankruptcy.