Vibrant, loud, ambitious, and never dull.

Many snobs turned their nose up when Leigh were promoted. Where were the Tokyo trojans? The Guanghzhou Grizzly bears? Expansion! Blah blah. Not me. I remember commenting on how they could improve super league.

But, now they have a trophy. That’s big. Not a lucky cup run ‘underdog’ teams sometimes have either. They are top 4.

The next step is to challenge for and win the grand final. Not this season most likely, but in the coming years if they can keep building, if they can win a grand final, we could have a new English super power on our hands.

Saints and wigan will obviously always be there, but we need a new powerhouse. One whom is hungry, starving for success. Leigh fit the bill.

The leopards are on the prowl.

As a Wiganer a part of me always hopes they fail BUT I did comment when we played them two weeks ago that if they, Saints, Wire and ourselves could all be top clubs at the same time then as a fan it would be superb viewing. Big, close, tense games against your rivals. What else do you want from sport?

I said this on the wigan forum but will repeat it here, who doesn't live a team of plucky lovable underdogs like Zak Hardaker?

can say the cup is luck of the draw, which they got the golden ticket in quarter final, but the way they beat Saints in the semi final and their league showing so far, deserve all the plaudits so far

Class really pleased for Leigh. They are a great club.

I hope Leigh do kick on. It’s boring St Helens winning SL all the time. They need a challenger

I don’t want to take anything away from their achievement which is remarkable.

Unless they invest in youth and create a quality academy set up with a development route to the first team then the best they can hope for is where Warrington are at present.

Hope??
3rd on the ladder, and just WON the challenge cup.....Ok!
Not only that, you have to disparage Warrington as well.

Great win for Leigh,fully deserved it

Wigan fan here.

What Leigh have achieved is great for the sport and I am pleased what they have done / are doing.

The challenge will be how they maintain these levels without an academy backing / propping them up.

Are they a few bad signings or people leaving away from dropping off massively? What would happen if Derek pulled the plug on finances?

Like I said, I hope they continue like this, but it’s a big risk.

Fair play to Leigh on their success. But you have to wonder how sustainable it is without a youth system. When are they allowed to get one? They could end up winning the double, but aren't allowed an academy system? That has to be rectified surely? Otherwise when they come to renew contracts and sign new players, they'll never be able to afford their stars if they're not allowed to top up the squad with young players like the big clubs are allowed to.

They can still have an academy can't they it just isn't deemed to be "elite" or whatever the word was that they used.

But that makes it entirely pointless. I was speaking to Adrian Morley and a few others at Salford last year about their academy work. They are desperate for an elite academy. If you don't have that status everything is limited. The number of sessions you can have is restricted, the number of players they can deal with is, the number of matches they can play is limited to four or so. Salford try to get around it by attracting players through a college system, but because they can't sign players at scholarship age, all the best players are already taken. Even when they do get players into the college program, anyone who shows potential is snapped up by one of the elite academies. It makes it impossible to attract and sign any of the better players and there are a lot of high potential players in Leigh and Salford.

There should be a framework for what a club has to provide and the standards it needs to maintain for an elite academy, but no club should be barred from having one if they can meet those.

Didn't know about that with the number of games etc. I just presumed it was related to funding.

Hopefully with the IMG system academies and reserves become the norm again.