Chris Chester

Leopard Changes its Spots

The 1895 AB Sundeck Cup, is a tremendous addition to the rugby league calendar, allowing Championship teams to have a Cup final in front of thousands of spectators. The final is now held as part of the Challenge Cup final day. Derek Beaumont bought into the concept and his company AB Sundecks are the main sponsor. After Leigh won the competition in 2022, Derek is said to have had a dream of Leigh winning the Challenge Cup a competition Leigh had not won since 1971, a time of dreams and tall tales for the small Lancashire town.
To anybody who watched the 2022 Challenge Cup Final and the 1895 Cup, it would have been obvious that there was a huge gulf between the two matches, and any dreams of Leigh winning would be far in the future.
With a trophy in the cabinet, all attention turned to finishing the season strongly, with hopes of a Grand Final win and promotion to Super League. The next game, was a tough encounter at Barrow, and with Leigh suffering from a cup hangover, it was only won in the last seven minutes, by the brilliance of Blake Ferguson.
The showdown at the top of the table would occur three weeks after the 1895 AB Sundeck Cup, with a third match against Featherstone Rovers. A 32-12 win for Leigh would see them leapfrog Featherstone.
Derek gave Chezzy the green light to recruit a Super League team, and in May started lining up the potential recruits. Josh Charnley signed for the 2023 season and was given an early release to join the Centurions immediately. A prolific try scorer in Super League, he looked unfit and out of sorts.
Adrian Lam had been laying the foundation for a potential signing of his son Lachlan Lam all season. Lockie had been at Sydney Roosters from 2019 but was struggling to burst into 1st team, often being chosen on the bench or as 18th man. Adrian, like the caring father he is would ask on their weekly call how it was going and then try to sell him a move to Leigh. When Lachlan was finally ready Adrian handed the reins over to Chezzy to conduct the contract, saying he wanted no part of the negotiations.
Leigh would eventually cruise to the Championship Leaders Shield, five points clear of Featherstone. The rivalry was expected to continue with a potential showdown at the LSV for the Grand Final. Batley had other plans and executed them perfectly in the semi-final to beat Featherstone at Post Office Road.
The Grand Final, despite a magnificent defensive effort by Batley, would not be a tense game and was decided shortly after the half-time interval when Caleb Aekins applied the afterburners and scored a magnificent 70-metre solo try. Lachlan Lam would terrorise the Batley right flank choosing to run close to the line and pick out one of the many options available to him. The big hope was that he would be able to continue such form into a Super League season.
In an interview with Adrian Lam after the game, he was very appreciative of Chris Chester. “Having Chris Chester at the club has been unbelievable here. Having experience in Super League, and being the voice between the admin and the boss and myself has been outstanding, and that is why it has worked so well.”
With promotion finally secure the real work for Chris Chester could begin. Retentions would need to be finalised and the overseas quota trimmed down from 15 to seven. Edwin Ipape had already signed a big extension to his contract alongside Nene McDonald and Blake Ferguson. John Asiata, Tom Amone and Lachlan Lam were expected to stay with only one quota spot remaining.
Leigh contacted the RFL to have Lachlan Lam and Kai O’Donnell exempted from the quota. Lachlan had played junior rugby for Wigan St Patricks, during the time when his father Adrian had been playing for the Wigan Warriors. Kai O’Donnell’s family on his mother’s side hails from the North East of England. The final verdict from the RFL removed Lachlan for the overseas quota but the request for Kai ultimately failed. Chezzy was still left with a juggling act to narrow the quota down to seven.
Nene McDonald had been mentioned as a possible target for the Leeds Rhinos with Ricky Leutele the Huddersfield Giants centre making a switch to the LSV. Mark Ioane moved to Keighley, Ata Hingano had switched to York to make way for Lachlan Lam mid-season and Krisnan Inu was expected to retire and eventually joined the coaching setup at Salford. This left Ben Nakubuwai, Caleb Aekins and Sam Stone without contracts for the Super League season.
During the 2022 Rugby League World Cup, Derek Beaumont called a press conference on a day with no Internationals taking place. With the eyes of the Rugby League on Leigh Centurions as the only news story of the day, it was announced that a rebranding would be taking place and that the Centurions would become the Leigh Leopards. Lost amongst the rebrand was the announcement of nine new signings. The headline signing was Zak Hardaker. Zak is a controversial player with a long rap sheet, but there is no doubting his ability on the field with two Super League Dream Team appearances and the 2015 Man of Steel award.
The full list of new players: Zak Hardaker, Ricky Leutele, Garreth O’Brien, Robbie Mulhern, Matt Davis, Oliver Holmes, Jacob Gannon, Jack Hughes and Tom Briscoe. Plenty of Super League experience, with some excellent additions.
Blake Ferguson was released on compassionate grounds to return to Australia despite a contract extension. Leeds would finally sign Nene McDonald as part of their rebuilding. Caleb Aekins would join Championship rivals Featherstone, with Sam Stone accepting a place at Salford. Kai O’Donnell and Ben Nakubuwai would complete the pre-season squad.
The pundits and media were suitably impressed and removed the relegation contender tag from the Leigh Leopards. The bookies would alight on Wakefield Trinity as potentially the weakest squad in the competition.
The Rugby League fans, however, were much more interested in making jokes about the Leigh Leopards rebrand, anything with alliteration was popular, like the Leigh Lemings. Featherstone would make a mock rebrand with the Featherstone Flamingos, wearing a fluorescent pink kit.
The Australian commentator Andrew Voss even guffawed that there were no leopards on the high street of Leigh, as if the streets of Leeds and Castleford are full of rhinos and tigers.