LEIGH LEOPARDS is a club with big aspirations – but Darnell McIntosh says it hasn’t lost its family feel.
Winger McIntosh joined the club from Hull FC in April and has established himself in the first team as the Leopards mount a late push for the Super League play-offs.
He puts that down to an environment that helped him settle from the off: “I can’t stress how welcoming everybody is at the club,” he said.
“Every single day when I come in, from the people at reception to the people at the top, everyone wants to stop and have a chat with you.
“The relationship that everyone has is brilliant. That’s what they want everyone to buy into. It was really refreshing to come and join an environment like that.
“I don’t think they want to lose that. They’ve come off that big Challenge Cup win (in 2023), the owner (Derek Beaumont) has big aspirations and as a playing group we have big goals.
“But we don’t want to lose the core values of the club, where we’ve come from and the fanbase that have stuck by them coming up and down. I don’t think we are going to lose that.”
McIntosh left hometown club Huddersfield for Hull at the end of 2021 with the aim of furthering his career, only for Hull to suffer a serious decline in fortunes.
“It was a challenging time at Hull and they’re going through something now to transition out of it,” he said.
“I feel that (moving to Leigh) happened at a good time for me. I’ve found a nice bit of form and I want to keep that going and finish this season in the best way I can to help the team reach its goals.
“Then I want get a really good pre-season under my belt and see what I can do with them going into 2025.”
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