A salutary reminder today that it isn’t just our management team that get things wrong and makes bewildering decisions. Thoughts with Leigh fans tonight etc....

Nothing wrong with a rebrand per se, but when you are the same club owned by the same people playing in the same ground in front of the same fans it's bonkers.

Can't see a need to change colours or badge either. Assume it's a ploy by Beaumont to bring in more money. Maybe the Leigh fans should follow Cardiff City fans when Tan tried to change blue to red kits & protest by refusing to buy new shirts. But then of course they might be happy with the changes.

Not so much the rebrand although 1) I suspect replacing traditional colours with a leopard skin print was always likely to be contentious; and rebranding as Leopards not for alliteration purposes but because owner likes them is a very left field thing (BTW the former is bobbins in any event they should have paid Swinton a tenner and taken the lions name).
The real problem is the execution. It appears to have been done on the cheap which is surprising as the owner is a successful local businessman and will know the value of marketing and design. Then what is worse the fact they have taken away attention from a pretty impressive recruitment push, the fact there is clearly a c*ck and ba**s on the leaopard’s forehead, the fact that the leopard is a cousin of Clarence the cross eyed lion or that there is a leopard’s backside on the back of the shirt defecating out the players number. I venture to say that Key and Eagle wouldn’t have had any of that.

Take a look at the proposed mascot as well. That is just not right- stuff of nightmares or niche sexual practices.

You've not met many successful local businessmen, have you? Derek has made a bob or too, and it's given him an ego the size of Jupiter.

Leigh Centurions RLFC are now Derek Beaumont Leopards RLFC. He deserves all the stick he takes from this.

Still, on the upside, it's made me laugh for about 48 hours.

Go on, David Hughes, outdo that! Make me laugh rather than despair.

Not many in the decking business that’s for sure!
Boy it was funny wasn’t it. I laughed and laughed. He even had a lengthy document explaining the rationale. It boils down to he likes leopards and he wore a leopard print top and no one said he looked like an idiot ( which was an oversight). It’s easily the funniest thing I’ve seen in RL. I’m still laughing. No criticism of the club or their fans it’s just pure unadulterated comedy during quite a joyless period.

To add to the hilarity it’s beginning to become clear that the picture on the 1st team shirt, the Leigh Leopards shirt, is a stock image of a Jaguar. Always tricky rebrands but.....Wowza!

For anyone interested, or who needs cheering up, this is the document BIgTime mentioned:
[urlhttps://indd.adobe.com/view/3d3e261d-1fa5-41de-8aee-f89dad654e96[/url

The guy has done a lot of good work for his club and I’m sure his heart is in the right place but this is the equivalent of someone slipping on dog shxt and throwing a milkshake all over themselves. You don’t wish the person any harm but it is just joyously, laugh out loud, funny. Happy days. .... until Broncos make chumps of themselves again obviously.

And another thing if I’d known I was part of some kind of subtle marketing focus group when he came out wearing that leopard print D and G sweatshirt at WHL I’d have given some feedback.....but then I may have missed out on all this fun!

Someone likes the new shirt seemingly. Derek has requested that PPS Design & Build step aside as main shirt sponsors and they have agreed to sponsor the training kit instead. The new sponsor (yet to be announced) has offered a six figure sum for each of the next two seasons. You don't get many shirt deals like that in RL, do you? Other fans may be laughing but Leigh fans have serious cause to smile.

Strangely enough Bongser had joked that Anusol would be sponsoring the leopard's backside.

Rather be a Leigh Leopard than a Wigan Cheetah, if that last word is the correct spelling.

From the ashes of ridicule comes triumph: a Great British success story......and of course it gave me a lot of pleasure as well. Go well next season....but not in those shirts eh the ‘ferocious and attractive’ leopard (allegedly) may scare the kids!