{"id":36451,"date":"2025-07-31T19:21:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T19:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/36451\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T19:21:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T19:21:12","slug":"leigh-leopards-coach-explains-biggest-issue-of-super-league-quota-increase-as-2026-recruitment-plans-unveiled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/36451\/","title":{"rendered":"Leigh Leopards coach explains biggest issue of Super League quota increase as 2026 recruitment plans unveiled"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Leigh\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Leigh Leopards head coach Adrian Lam<\/a> has spoken about the fact Super League clubs will be able to roster up to ten overseas players in 2026 and how it will impact the club\u2019s recruitment, explaining one key problem in the \u2018puzzle\u2019.<\/p>\n

In a week where changes have been seismic, notably the fact Super League clubs have voted for the league to expand to 14 in 2026<\/a>, it was also confirmed that the number of quota players available to each club will increase.<\/p>\n

Currently, Super League sides can have a maximum of seven overseas quota players but that will increase to ten from 2026<\/a>. Coupled with the addition of two more teams, it means that up to 56 more overseas players could play in Super League next year, something that has drawn concern about opportunities for young English players.<\/p>\n

One concern that Leigh Leopards coach Adrian Lam has is the fact that the salary cap, which currently sits at \u00a32.1 million, will not increase meaning teams will have to \u2018juggle the pieces\u2019 in Lam\u2019s view.<\/p>\n

Leigh Leopards boss discusses 2026 recruitment<\/p>\n

Lam was discussing the club\u2019s recent \u201caggressive\u201d recruitment in which around a dozen new faces have signed to the club each of the past few years, something which has effectively led to a very new-look squad.<\/p>\n

He explained that he\u2019s \u2018grateful\u2019 the Leopards won\u2019t have to do that in 2026, stating that there will be \u201cmaybe a handful\u201d of new recruits meaning he expects his side to be able to hit the ground running faster next year.<\/p>\n

With seven overseas players on the books already for 2026<\/a>, Lam was asked if he could foresee his side maxing out their quota and that saw him highlight the key issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a difficult one because whilst the quota spots have gone up from seven to ten, the salary cap remains the same so you have to juggle the pieces and put the puzzles together on how we do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019d add: \u201cI think we\u2019ve done with that as good as any other club in the last two or three years. I think we\u2019ve recruited better than anyone so I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll get that right, but if there\u2019s 10 available, then I presume most clubs would like to do that. We\u2019ll see how that pans out as that new season unfolds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adrian Lam confirms 2025 signing could still be made<\/p>\n

One way plenty of the more established clubs will counter that is with the promotion of youth players, something we\u2019ve seen recently from Leeds Rhinos as they signed three players to senior deals<\/a>, including the son of Jamie Jones-Buchanan.<\/p>\n

Leigh have only had an academy licence for a very short period of time but Lam explained that the Leopards plan to keep funding that and avoid the local Leigh talent being poached by other clubs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a handful of them playing in the top three or four clubs already that probably should be here,\u201d he admitted, before confirming he intends to bring at least one through as he has done each year during his time in charge.<\/p>\n

Another interesting point made by the Leopards\u2019 head coach was the fact the club still have money available this year and could be in a position to add ahead of the play-offs, with the transfer deadline recently pushed back until August 28th<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lam revealed: \u201cThis season, we\u2019ve still got another four weeks roughly on potentially bringing someone else in. I\u2019m not saying that we\u2019re going to, but there\u2019s an option to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, like probably not too many other clubs, have got the funds financially in a position to do that. We want to be aggressive with all of that. I think whilst it\u2019s just about August, we still have our best rugby ahead of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leigh Leopards head coach Adrian Lam has spoken about the fact Super League clubs will be able to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-36451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}