ONLY one team was guaranteed to get promoted out of League One this season – and nobody could argue Oldham did not deserve to be that team.
The Roughyeds translated their financial dominance into excellence on the pitch with the help of director of rugby Mike Ford and head coach Sean Long.
If winning 19 matches out of 20 doesn’t reflect Oldham’s superiority, a points difference of 741 from so few matches illustrates the gulf in class compared to the rest.
The only side to beat them was Keighley, who offered creditable competition to keep the title race interesting but lost the second and third meetings of the year between the sides.
A 44-6 defeat in late July signalled the game was up, and came shortly after the hugely controversial decision by the Cougars to sack their coach Matt Foster amid disagreements behind the scenes.
Director of rugby Jake Webster has been leading a squad full of pedigree – Brandon Pickersgill, Junior Sa’u, Jack Miller, George Flanagan, Ellis Robson – since, winning four from five before a final-round loss to Rochdale.
Errors cost them in that game, and at least they will have three weeks to put things right with a bye to the second round of the play-offs.
For the other four League One sides to make the cut, it’s back to action this Sunday (September 15) with a ‘qualifying play-off’ between Rochdale and Hunslet, and an ‘elimination play-off’ between Midlands Hurricanes and Workington.
The Hornets, led by ex-Hunslet coach Gary Thornton off the field and Lewis Else on it, go into their match buoyed by that success over Keighley and on a four-match winning run, which saw them pip Hunslet – who finished fourth despite a negative points difference – to home advantage.
It’s a far cry from losing three of their first four this season, accounting for half of their defeats to date. Their first was at home to Hunslet, now coached by Dean Muir and grateful for the form of Matty Beharrell and Jude Ferreira, but they gained revenge in June with a dominant 48-18 win at the South Leeds Stadium.
The winners of that tie will play Keighley for a place in the League One play-off final. For the other two sides in the series, the path is trickier.
Just reaching this stage is an achievement for the Hurricanes, the first time they have made the play-offs in their ten years as a semi-professional club (either as Coventry Bears or now the Hurricanes).
With Jake Sweeting, Callum McLelland and Danny Barcoe pulling the strings, they have really kicked on under coach Mark Dunning, and while reaching the final is a long shot, having not beaten any of the top-four sides this season, they will fancy their chances of going one more step by beating Workington for the third time this season, on home soil.
Town have the hardest route of any club – they would have to win five successive away games to get promoted – making the odds of a glorious farewell for Keighley-bound coach Anthony Murray, not to mention retiring club great Carl Forber, very steep.
It’s the same four-week play-off system as in recent years to determine League One’s second-best team – but that isn’t enough for promotion this time.
With the Championship reducing in size to 13 (then twelve in 2026), the third-tier play-off winners will then have a promotion/relegation play-off against the twelfth-placed Championship club.
And to make the task harder, they will have to beat the higher-division side away from home in order to earn promotion on Sunday, October 13.
It’s a long, long road to promotion. If any of them achieve it, they will certainly have earned it.
League One play-off format:
Sunday 15 September
Qualifying play-off: Rochdale Hornets v Hunslet
Elimination play-off: Midlands Hurricanes v Workington Town
Weekend of Saturday 21/Sunday 22 September
Semi-final 1: Keighley Cougars v winner of qualifying play-off
Semi-final 2: Loser of qualifying play-off v winner of elimination play-off
Sunday 29 September
Preliminary final: Loser of semi-final 1 v winner of semi-final 2
Sunday 6 October
League One play-off final: Winner of semi-final 1 v winner of preliminary final (at the home of the finalist who finished highest in the league in the regular season)
Sunday 13 October
Championship promotion play-off: 12th in Championship v winner of League One play-off final
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