KIERON Purtill reveals Leigh are aiming high on and off the field as they prepare for a first Super League campaign in 11 years.

And Centurions hope Purtill’s top flight experience with St Helens and Huddersfield can help them become permanent members of the game’s elite.

Certainly, there is no hiding place for head coach Neil Jukes’ squad since Purtill started work as one of his assistants at Leigh Sports Village.

“What I bring to the group is that experience of being in Super League,” said Purtill.

“I have been coaching there since 2002 and I know the ins and out of how Super League works and the training standard you need to get up to.

“One of the first things when I came in was I noticed where the players hang around was a bit untidy and scruffy. That’s changed.

“The analysis department was probably 10 years behind Super League clubs. Now, we have a full-time analysis guy in Steve Mills who has come on board from Huddersfield.

“All of a sudden we all have lap tops and every training session gets filmed by a drone. So, we get really good footage of people on the field.

“As soon as we come off training it drops the footage off on our lap tops so we can look through.

“We have just introduced GPS as well and all these little one per centers give you a better chance of winning games in Super League. That’s probably why I have been brought to the club.

“We have said from day one we want to be the hardest working team which will help us reach our goal in Super League the following year.

“If we can get eighth spot that would be fantastic. But as long as we are in Super League the following year we are not bothered what happens.

“It’s a big step up next year and there is a lot of hard work to do. But everyone is buying into it.”

Purtill admits his role as Paul Anderson’s assistant at Huddersfield could have ended better.

However, the lure of a return to Leigh proved too hard to resist.

“Things didn’t end like I wanted to at the Giants,” admitted the former Leigh scrum half, who retired as a player in 2002.

“But from a personal point of view it was a good time to come come back.

“I had always lived in Leigh and I would be leaving my house at 5.30-5.45 in the morning and not get back to 8.30 at night.

“I was missing quite a bit of family time with my kids so from that side of things it was perfect timing.

“Even if the club hadn’t been promoted this season it was still going in the right direction and it was something I wanted to be part of.”