bosman69

Bradford are certainly the noisiest in the Championship and appear to be moving in a positive direction. The signing of Waqa Blake is a very interesting one and will either be a stroke of genius or be a continuation of the decline of this talented but hard to motivate back. Sheffield went in free fall after the Mark Aston suspension but the recruitment of Lingard who did great things at Batley and was very unlucky to lose his job at Cas imo looks very astute to me.

If we look at the fate of promoted teams on the last 2 yrs it shows a real mixed bag but finishing champions of league one is certainly no guarantee of success. Keighley demolished all comers in 2022 only to get relegated in 2023. They did sack their coach when they seemed more comfortable.. dewsbury won league 1 in 2023 but finished dead last in 2024. They didn't recruit at all and lost their coach when Finn went to Halifax. Doncaster finished third but recruited well late in the year and got promoted via the play offs..they picked up experienced players again and finished a comfortable 8th in the championship. Stability and keep improving would seem to be the keys here - something which Oldham have embraced.

Given the odd number of teams a bye week will be a feature. Batley have the bye in the opening round of fixtures so hopefully we will catch them cold after we played York the week before.

Interesting that it is just a year atm. We do like to offer 2 Yr deals so I am guessing this was his choice. He will add organisation in the halves and allow DC or Dean to play alongside. Great left peg as well to improve our kicking game.

Another squad announcement this evening...

Our trust is tremendous and I am delighted to continue to be a member. Facebook excellent as well..

Yei featured on a recent training reel doing rehab as was projected when they announced his op. Hopefully it goes well. We have 6 out and out Props contacted for 2025 so we will need them all fit and firing.

As others have noted it is the quality and depth of the squad that is particularly striking. Everyone will need to be on their game to ensure a place in the match day 17. I respect Brookys choice but equally could make a case for other permutations that look just as good. We improved materially as the season went on - remember succumbing to a very physical Swinton or being badly beaten at York? The signings we have made appear to have definitely moved us up a level and I look forward to us competing next year.

Ashurst confirmed as well now. Excellent second row with a great rugby brain.

Tiny was a magnificent prop forward who played over 40 games for Oldham. Played in an era were there only 2 subs and was close to 20 stone.. how devastating would he have been with four subs and ability to play shorter spells?!

Last year we partnered with Salford and there were some clear benefits.. we trained there at times including opposed sessions for example and oldham fringe players got game time in their reserves. No players came our way on dual registration due to the size and depth of our squad and Sidlow was a proper loan. Partnerships across the championship are emerging for 2025. Batley - wakefield Barrow - Salford Thoughts?

It certainly is a little unusual at the moment and the off season is long and full of rumours. We have been strongly linked to players but these are not official until announced. We had a strong squad last year which we added too as we went along (Dixon and Dean for example) with most on two year deals so we were always going to be a lot quieter this year. The club have raised expectations.. the signings get better.. etc and George even said keep a lookout on the socials for departures.. one of which has been announced by the club he is going to but not us yet. I am sure the information will all come out eventually but at the moment we have the constant messages about season tickets to look forward to!

Mckenzie's move to hunslet makes a lot of sense. He has a lot of potential and needs to be playing to fulfil that but with the likes of Dixon, Agoro, Tyrer, Sambou and Johnson we are well stocked in the wing department. O'Keefe can also play there as well.

Roger wrote a piece on the website comparing oldham to old foes like leigh and Hull Kr.. and how close we were the. KR at old Trafford for example.. Hull KR have just announced 8500 season tickets have been sold.. an incredible achievement. One to inspire us to keep on progressing and as evidence as to what can be achieved once a sleeping giant has been fully awoken.

Apologies.. I meant Nathan Roebuck.