Leigh Leopards 2024 Awards Night

Kai O’Donnell scooped many of the principal awards as Leigh Leopards staged a successful end of season awards and celebration evening at Leigh Sports Village.

O’Donnell, who has enjoyed an outstanding personal campaign, was chosen as Players’ Player of the Year and Player of the Year in each of the five member categories. He also won the Try of the Year award.

England international Robbie Mulhern was chosen as Coaches’ Player of the year.

Lachlan Lam was Players’ Back of the Year and Tom Amone Players’ Forward of the Year, while Umyla Hanley was chosen as Rising Star.

Edwin Ipape won Big Hit of the Year.

In other prominent categories Leopards head of youth Kieron Purtill received the Outstanding Achievement Award for his work in submitting a successful bid application to the RFL for the club to operate an academy system from 2025.

He also coached the Leopards Women’s team to a record-breaking season, concluding in securing promotion to the Women’s Super League.

Leopards Women team manager Stephen Quinn received the Club Person of the Year award. Long a stalwart of the women’s game at Leigh Miners Rangers and a respected long-serving teacher in the town, Mr Quinn was instrumental in the setting up of the Leopards women’s team and has worked tirelessly in a voluntary capacity.

James Winterbottom, Director of Strategy & Innovation, Wigan Council, received the Town of Leigh Award for his outstanding contribution in influencing the building of partnerships between the Club, Council, Leigh Sports Village and our community. This will protect and preserve our club for the future.

Club owner Derek Beaumont, head of rugby Chris Chester, head coach Adrian Lam and club captain John Asiata all reflected on a hugely successful season in which Leopards reached the semi-finals of the Betfred Super League for the first time.

Leopards recorded their highest average home crowds for 69 years and became the first team in the history of the club to finish in the top five in successive top-flight seasons.

Leopards Women’s Team won their place in the elite eight-team Women’s Super League for 2025. They lifted the Championship North after an unbeaten league campaign, then won the Championship North Grand Final, the Championship Grand Final and finally the Promotion Play-Off Final to complete a memorable campaign.

All the players, the off-field staff and volunteers were thanked and recognised for their contribution to an excellent year. Leopards recorded their highest membership number in the club’s history with nearly 6,000 members across the five member categories.

All Club Partners came to the stage for their respective shirt presentations: Homes Together, Holland & Barrett, Fitfield, Leisure Resorts, Impact Insurance, Pine Products, Jetz Travel, IXtract, ADW Electrical, iDuct, Leigh Cables, WJ Structures, Leigh Market, Patrick and Nutra Prep’s.

LEOPARDS END OF SEASON AWARDS 2024

Players’ Player of the Year (sponsored by Caton Lloyd Audio Visual Solutions, presented by Dave Lloyd & Neil Jukes)

KAI O’DONNELL

Coaches’ Player of the Year (sponsored by Earthwork Support Specialist (CE) Ltd, presented by Scott Raftry & Adrian Lam)

ROBBIE MULHEARN

Players’ Back of the Year (sponsored by iDuct, presented by Grant Gledhill & Chris Chester)

LACHLAN LAM

Players’ Forward of the Year (sponsored by BD Construction Ltd, presented by Phil Bullough & Chris Chester)

TOM AMONE

Rising Star (sponsored by Advanced Steel Services Ltd, presented by Carl Grundy & Adrian Lam)

UMYLA HANLEY

The individual player sponsors each received a framed shirt from their respective player.

Players to achieve individual milestones during the season were also celebrated. These were:

100 career games

Tom Amone, Frankie Halton, Lachlan Lam and Owen Trout

150 career games

Darnell McIntosh

200 career games

Matt Moylan

250 career games

Ricky Leutele

300 career games

Brad Dwyer, Gareth O’Brien (also 200 Super League games)

350 career games

Josh Charnley

150 career tries

Zak Hardaker (also 300 Super League games)

300 career tries

Josh Charnley (also 300 Super League games)

Second in all-time Super League tries

Josh Charnley 248

Moving on to the main section of the awards, each membership category voted for their respective Player of the Year. A member from each category was chosen at random to make the presentation.

Red Card Member Player of the Year (presented by Linda Duxbury)

KAI O’DONNELL

White Card Member Player of the Year (presented by Mille Richardson)

KAI O’DONNELL

Gold Card Member Player of the Year (presented by Julie Canavan)

KAI O’DONNELL

Platinum Card Member Player of the Year (presented by Natalie Durkin)

KAI O’DONNELL

Black Card Member Player of the Year (presented by Kath & Keith Stott)

KAI O’DONNELL

Edwin Ipape won the Big Hit of the Year Award for one particularly fine tackle on Mark Percival during the game against St Helens on 20 September.

Kai O’Donnell won Try of the Year for his brilliant finish to a great team move against St Helens on 26 July.

The LISA Members chose Matt Moylan as their LISA Player of the Year and this award was presented by Lynda Pike.

The evening then moved on to other important awards which concluded the evening.

Club Chairman Mike Latham introduced club owner Derek Beaumont and CEO Neil Jukes to the stage and the following ‘Life Members Inductees’ and ‘Outstanding Achievement’ awards were presented:

Life Members Inductees – Presented by Mike Latham included:

Derek Sumner

Don Boyle

Tommy Boylan

Making a Difference Award – Presented to Hannah Forbes & Heather Parker Preece from Leigh Community Trust

Club Person of the Year – Leigh Leopards Women’s Team Manager – Stephen Quinn

Outstanding Achievement – Kieron Purtill

Town of Leigh Award – James Winterbottom