Leigh Leopards overcame ‘mission impossible’ to complete an invincible season and secure their place in the Women’s Super League. How will the Leopards adjust to life in the elite?
TO SAY that Leigh dominated the 2024 Championship season would be an understatement. Kieron Purtill’s side won all 16 games during the regular season, scoring 808 points and conceding just 64.
But when it came to the play-offs, it was slightly different. Purtill’s side made the Northern Final automatically when Oulton Raidettes were unable to raise a team and then disposed of Sheffield Eagles 46-6 before edging London Broncos in a tight National Championship Final.
Unfortunately for Leigh though, winning the National Championship alone wasn’t enough to secure promotion. The structure of the league dictated that the Leopards needed to beat Super League’s bottom side in a promotion play-off in order to join the elite.
In their biggest test of the season, Leigh turned on the style and brushed Featherstone Rovers to one side, winning 34-16 at the Totally Wicked Stadium.
“It’s a fantastic achievement,” said head coach Purtill after the match. “I’m just really chuffed for them all.
“They really deserve everything they’ve got.”
The head coach was questioned about the structure of the competition, which forced the Leopards to power through the play-offs before taking on Featherstone in the promotion showdown. Purtill said: “It was almost mission impossible.
“I think when we looked at it at the beginning of the year, we knew what we had to go through in terms of the amount of games we had to play. Then towards the back end of the season, you play in three grand finals in three weeks.
“There’s a psychological aspect of that. There’s a mental fatigue aspect of that, and then the physical side of it.
“Against Sheffield we were pretty happy with how we played. We probably weren’t quite where we needed to be against London, but we found a way to win. Against Featherstone we had the right mentality and turned up.
“Then you have to look at the rule changes as well. We’ve been under community rules, unlimited subs with tackle height rules being different. There was a lot of things to go against us, but we always knew that from day one, we judged ourselves on Super League standards, and that’s a testament to these girls. They’ve been superb all year.
“I won’t say the three grand finals give us confidence, but we’ve worked hard to get here. We’ve earned the right to get here. We deserve that result.”
Purtill, who has a long and accomplished CV in rugby league, admitted that his latest achievement with the Leopards ranks high on his personal list.
“It’s right up near the top,” he said. “I’ve been involved in lots of finals, been to Grand Finals and Challenge Cups. Been involved in World Cup finals, of course, internationals.
“This group of girls, I’m in awe of them. Every single day, they turn up off their own backs. They’re doing extras. They train as much as a part time rugby team. They do the video analysis. They do the gym themselves. The sacrifices that they make makes my job worthwhile.”
The gulf in quality between the Championship and the Women’s Super League is a significant one. In recent years, few have been able to challenge the dominant trio of York Valkyrie, St Helens and Leeds Rhinos.
Leigh’s first season will not be about challenging those at the top, rather, it will be about gaining experience. Competing with the likes of Huddersfield Giants, Barrow Raiders and Warrington Wolves will be at the top of the agenda for the Leopards.
As well as competitive goals, Purtill underlined the importance of representing the town in the elite competition.
“I think [promotion] is just massive for our group,” he said. “Particularly for the town as well. We talked about inspiring the next generation. And we have some fantastic community clubs in our area, Leigh Miners, in particular.
“We’ve got a mixture of players. People who, I think at some point in their career, it hasn’t really gone right for them. Or they’ve been at Super League clubs and dropped out.
“For all those to come together and have a common goal, it’s a fantastic achievement for them all next year.”
Charlotte Melvin, who has been a consistent performer for the club throughout the campaign, admitted she is looking forward to gaining a lot more experience in Super League next season.
When asked what it felt like to be part of the elite, she said: “Unexpected really. But it feels really good to be in Super League next year.
“We gave it our all,” she added. “I think we did deserve the win. We worked as a team. The fans were behind us.”
While Leigh are looking forward to a historic 2025 campaign, Featherstone now face the difficult prospect of Championship rugby.
“Every week’s a challenge in rugby league,” said head coach Marie Colley. “We’re back to the drawing board, and we’ll look forward to any game that comes at us.
“We know that we’ll be the team to beat. We know that we’ll have a target on our back, because everybody will want to prove a point. So we’ve just got to concentrate on us and not worry about what everybody else is doing.”
When asked to sum up the season, Colley said: “In terms of results, disappointing. In terms of us as a playing group, we’ve learned a lot about ourselves, that’s from all levels of the club to the staff to the players, and we’ll only be stronger for that.”
The head coach also admitted that returning to Super League at the first time of asking is very much the ambition.
“We may have a different looking squad next year, some players will look to move to pastures new and some players feel a little bit of redemption is in order on their behalf. So yeah, 100 percent, Super League’s the destination for us.”
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 502 (November 2024)
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