{"id":533406,"date":"2026-04-16T03:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T03:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/533406\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T03:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T03:27:14","slug":"leigh-leopards-boss-drops-major-hint-on-off-contract-stars-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/533406\/","title":{"rendered":"Leigh Leopards boss drops major hint on off-contract star&#8217;s future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Leigh boss Adrian Lam says the Leopards are in talks with off-contract star Isaac Liu over an extension, with both parties hoping to get a deal over the line soon.<\/p>\n<p>Former Samoa and New Zealand international Liu arrived at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.loverugbyleague.com\/tag\/leigh-leopards\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Leigh<\/a> ahead of the 2025 campaign and has so far featured 41 times in their colours, scoring three tries.<\/p>\n<p>The veteran forward forms part of Lam\u2019s leadership group, and was among Super League\u2019s standout recruits last season as the Leopards reached the play-off semi-finals.<\/p>\n<p>Liu will turn 35 later this month, but shows no signs of slowing down, and it appears he will be extending his stay in the North West.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The ultimate professional, he takes care of himself. He\u2019s in early and he\u2019s out late, he does everything he possibly can\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Born in Auckland, Liu clocked up 272 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.loverugbyleague.com\/nrl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> appearances between Sydney Roosters and the Gold Coast Titans during his time Down Under having made a first-grade debut back in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>A back-to-back NRL Grand Final winner with the Roosters in 2018 and 2019, his influence on Leigh has been clear for all to see, as head coach Lam explained: \u201cHe\u2019s one of our leaders, he\u2019s been awesome for us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought he was unbelievable last weekend (in the Challenge Cup quarter-final against Warrington Wolves) in a big game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIsaac leads us, I think he played every game last year. He\u2019s durable and he\u2019s resilient, but he\u2019s a great leader as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re in the process of talking to him (over his contract), he\u2019s an important part of the group. He gels things together, he\u2019s a popular member of the team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s got a great, funny side about him. As much as he\u2019s physical and tough and does all of the hard stuff on the field, he\u2019s also got a bit of a joke about him off the field and the boys love that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Including his games on the international stage, Liu has already made well over 300 career appearances and now has his sights set on the next landmark of 350.<\/p>\n<p>This weekend, he will aim to help Leigh to their third <a href=\"https:\/\/www.loverugbyleague.com\/super-league\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super League<\/a> victory of the season as he faces York Knights for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n<p>Praising the 34-year-old, Leopards head coach Lam continued: \u201cThe ultimate professional, he takes care of himself. He\u2019s in early and he\u2019s out late, he does everything he possibly can.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe had to leave early on in the season and go home unfortunately with his mum\u2019s passing, and that\u2019s been playing in his mind, but he\u2019s been professional through all of that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe club allowed him some time to go home and say goodbye to his mum, but since he\u2019s been back, he\u2019s been the ultimate professional.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>WATCH THE NEW EPISODE OF THE LRL PODCAST!\u00a0<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leigh boss Adrian Lam says the Leopards are in talks with off-contract star Isaac Liu over an extension,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-533406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533406","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=533406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}