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Official now

Two year deal

Nene was really good in attack the first half of the season , but seemed to go quiet in the second half , my opinion good on. High balls , needs a ball of his own when attacking , and my Nan is a better defender.

Hopefully something he can work on

Pretty sure a coach who has worked with him before knows better than you

Was your Nan Gene Miles? Suspect your overdoing it on the defensive weaknesses given that he's played over 100 games in the NRL. Over there if you can't tackle you don't play. Whatever the truth of it, Rohan did a great job of sorting out our defence last year and I suspect he'll get an improvement out of Nene.

Can she play wing? Maybe the perfect replacement for Blake Ferguson, now he's jumped ship ..

Shortage of leigh fans on here tonight, shame.

I would have liked us to have kept him but we're not short of players who can play in the centre position. With 'ball in hand' he is some player, I guess you take the rough with the smooth as some players aren't as lethal in defence. Like we signed Josh Charnley (and in the championship)
did nothing with the ball, but his defence was top notch. Good luck to Nene anyway, hope it works out for him and Leeds Rhinos.

Glad its finally been announced, as centre was the gaping hole in the squad. Sad for Leigh about Ferguson. Wouldn't be a surprise to see him back in the NRL this year.

Is MacDonald likely to be fit for the start of the season?
If he was due to be out for 3 months after the WC it leaves it late for him to be match fit in time or at best first week in Feb.

We might have no first choice centres for
Start. Go Olpherts, Martin I guess…?

Not seen anything formal from the club but it's not looking good. was hoping to see him play boxing day.

Quote ="Shabino"We might have no first choice centres for Start. Go Olpherts, Martin I guess…?'" Sounds like both 3 & 4 shouldn't be too far off https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/ ... es-3955436

Quote ="Shabino"We might have no first choice centres for Start. Go Olpherts, Martin I guess…?'" Sounds like both 3 & 4 shouldn't be too far off https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/ ... es-3955436

Charlie's not overdoing it on the weak defence but he may be doing so regarding Nene's prowess under a high ball. He tended to convert our attacking high kicks to the left into tries early season but seemed to panic when given similar "brown trouser treatment" in defence.

Our left side defence was a worry (especially early doors) when Nene seemed to get sucked inside too often. We were (whilst trouncing most Champ teams) shipping too many tries on that side. Lam (Snr) did improve things up to a point and the addition of Inu outside (once match fit) buttressed things but still Kris was often left with a dilemma when his centre went AWOL inside. Then witness him falling off Joey Leilua of Fev - yes the latter is a big unit but other, smaller, players clung on (although Joey dragged them over on that occasion).

Nene's hat trick (especially his third try) against Whitehaven in Leigh's 2022 season opener had Bongser purring (do Leopards purr?) but the latter is not that purr-turbed at his moving on.

Seems a nice bloke, good luck to him (bar against us).

Probably just needs a better coach.

Don’t think any of us are that bothered how he went at Leigh now. Smith knows his ability and rates him. That will be enough for him to do well at Leeds….

He was terrible in the world cup. His defense was woeful. That must be a worry

Not a worry no. He was likely carrying an injury, + we won’t be expecting that much next season after no pre-season, coming back after a bad injury.
He’ll get some game time, but we can cover as long as Newman can somehow stay fit!
Martin, Handley, 2 young centres, apparently Olpherts can all do a job at centre too……..

I personally think it`s a worry having a centre who can`t defend alongside a winger who also can`t defend.
Attack not a problem as both are good finishers. But unless Smith can somehow work a few miracles that left side is going to ship a few.

We've a few key players missing a fair bit of pre season which is a worry. McDonald, Oledsjki, Smith, Newman, Lisone... could be a tricky start to the season.

Smith out.

Can see it now from a few can't you

Yeah you can in typical Leeds fashion. On the original I think it’s relative. Lisone is here now and first game is 16 Feb with some warm ups in between. That gives him at least 5-6 solid weeks with some pre season minutes which should be fine. Smith is almost ready so gets the same and obv knows how things work. Newman is obv working his way back, I get the impression with him that you wouldn’t do a hard pre season given his fragility. McDonald obv more of a concern given he is new to the club and won’t get much if any training or game time prior to the season starting. Mik is a big miss but once he is fit he will slide back in and I think unlike other years we do have some reasonable front row cover.

For me we need to keep our big men fit and have them all available and ready to go early season. We also need to try and have a settled 9,6,7 and 1 combination training and playing in pre season games for 4-5 weeks prior to that first game.