LEIGH’S sensational Super League season has seen five Leopards make the annual Dream Team.
Tom Amone, John Asiata, Edwin Ipape and Lachlan Lam are among six new faces in the best 13 of 2023 after they made the play-offs and ended a 52-year wait for the Challenge Cup.
They are joined by winger Josh Charnley, who returns following a 10-year absence.
Warrington prop Paul Vaughan and Wigan centre Jake Wardle are the other debutants in the side picked by panellists for the Steve Prescott MBE Man Of Steel award.
Wardle’s team-mate Liam Farrell has been picked for the sixth time, while Bevan French is in for the third time in four seasons – in his third different position, stand off after previously being picked at wing and full back.
St Helens’ Jack Welsby is the youngest member at 22-years-old while Hull KR’s 34-year-old captain Shaun Kenny-Dowall is the oldest.
Catalans’ Tom Johnstone and Salford’s Kallum Watkins also make the cut.
Chair of the Dream Team selection panel, Ellery Hanley MBE, said: “Just as the battle for the League Leaders’ Shield went down to the wire, so too did the Dream Team selection process.
“We could have picked a second Dream Team to rival this one!
“The selection of five Leigh players is a measure of what that club has achieved in 2023. Liam Farrell’s selection reflects what he has delivered week in and week out for the past five seasons.
“He’s the kind of Mr Consistent who would grace any Dream Team in any era.”
2023 SUPER LEAGUE DREAM TEAM
Welsby (St Helens); Charnley (Leigh), Wardle (Wigan), Kenny-Dowall (Hull KR), Johnstone (Catalans); French (Wigan), Lam (Leigh); Vaughan (Warrington), Ipape, Amone (both Leigh), Watkins (Salford), Farrell (Wigan), Asiata (Leigh).
