MIKE Ford, former Oldham and Great Britain scrum-half star, has had a meeting with all the town’s junior coaches in a bid to enhance OLDHAM RLFC’S standing with the junior sections of local community clubs.
“I want to see a situation that existed when I was rugby daft and growing up in Oldham,”
said Ford, now aged 57, the Roughyeds’ managing director and the “rugby man” among the club’s seven new directors.
He went on:
“When I came back to this area after several years down South, I was shocked to see so few Roughyeds jerseys being worn by local youngsters but so many Super League shirts on view from clubs like Saints, Wigan, Warrington, even Catalans and especially Leeds Rhinos. I didn’t see many Roughyeds top. Since then, I’ve discovered there is even more apathy towards us among the junior clubs, with lots of young people who play and support other clubs from outside this area, not even aware of our existence.
“That’s why I was with town’s junior coaches — to talk with them, to let them know we are here and very interested in them.
“We can’t offer a place in our team for a 12 year old, obviously, but the many hundreds of young people who are playing rugby league now at junior level are the potential supporters, parents, season-ticket holders and club volunteers of tomorrow. They won’t all be players but some will and most of them will be supporters,
“That’s why I want to create a situation like it was in my day when all the kids wanted to play for the Oldham town team in their age group and to go on and play for Oldham at Watersheddings. We wanted to play for Oldham. It didn’t always happen — it didn’t in my case initially — but I got there in the end after playing first for Wigan and then for Leigh.”
Ford went on to relate a tale which shows how times have changed — and not for the better. He says he will commit himself to changing them again — this time for the better.
He was a teenager at the time. He knew Oldham had shown an interest in signing him, but it hadn’t happened. Then two Wigan directors turned up on the doorstep of his home in Grasscroft, armed with cheque book and signing forms. Mike takes up the story.
“They offered me a lot of money and said they hadn’t driven all the way from Wigan for nothing. They were very determined and said that if I didn’t sign then for the most famous Rugby League club in the world I would’nt sign for them at all. I had grown up wanting to sign for Oldham and even at that stage and under so much pressure I took my Dad on one side and asked him to ring Oldham one last time. He did, in another room, and was told: “Give us a fortnight. We’ll get back to you.”
“I was left with no alternative but to sign for Wigan, but the point is I WANTED to sign for my home town even if they were not exactly falling over themselves to sign me. I got there eventually and I would love to see things change over the next year or two so that we see a lot of junior replica shirts on view at home games and in the town.
“It obviously helps when we have a game like the one we had against Dewsbury on Sunday, but there is a view that we need to bring back age-related town teams first in order to get the cream of the crop, at each level, used to pulling the Oldham jersey over their heads.”
John Byram, member of a big local Rugby League family, remembers well how proud They pride he felt when selected for an Oldham Schoolboys side to tour Australia in the late 1980s under the watch of three local teachers – iain MacCorquodale and the late Eric Fitzsimons and Fred Laughton.
With that in mind, John was invited to attend the Oldham RLFC partners meeting recently to put his argument for town teams to be re-introduced.
Said John:
“I was privileged to attend the partners meeting and to report that there is tremendous interest at junior level to listen to what Mike has to say. His vision can be achieved with a lot of hard work over a few years.”
