MIKE Ford and Oldham RLFC are fronting a plan to resurrect town-team rugby league for local youngsters and to bring Roughyeds and the area’s community clubs closer together, all under the umbrella of Oldham Rugby.
“My dream is for the town of Oldham to become, once more, a powerhouse in our game and, at all levels, we have the potential to return to the good old days,”
said Ford, ahead of his meeting tomorrow (Wed) night with the Oldham Amateur League at Higginshaw. It’s a special meeting of the league with clubs and club representatives invited to listen to what Ford has to say but NOT the general public.
It’s a closed-house meeting with clubs and their reps, the Oldham Amateur League insisting that at this stage talks are of a provisional and confidential nature and are not for public consumption.
Ford, a former Challenge Cup winner with Wigan, represented Oldham at Wembley as an 11 year-old and went on to carve out a highly-successful playing career with Wigan, Leigh, Oldham and Castleford as well as representing Great Britain on tour to Australia and New Zealand.
He became player-coach at hometown Oldham and then moved into Rugby Union, working for both the Ireland and England RFU plus various top clubs in the 15-man code before landing his dream job back on the northern town of his roots and the town where it all began.
His three sons are all heavily involved in Union, Joe coaching Doncaster after playing for Yorkshire Carnegie, Northampton, Sale and Leicester; George at Sale after playing for Leicester and Bath and winning 72 England caps; and Jacob head of rugby at Bury St Edmunds RUFC and director of rugby at Ipswich School.
Also tomorrow night (Wed), Joe Warburton and John Byram will go head to head with the town’s junior coaches at Heyside Cricket Club to finalise plans for the return of town-team rugby for under-11s, under-12s, under-13s and under-14s.
Warburton and Byram are organising it, Warburton having spent a lifetime in League as town-team youngster, Oldham player, secretary of the Oldham Players’ Association and for many years a coach at the highest level of development rugby.
The proposed plan is to use Melrose Playing Fields in Chadderton, owned by the RFL but now used jointly by Hollinwood ARLFC and Oldham RLFC for development tuition with sessions taking place each Saturday between 10am and noon.
Coaches have been invited to apply for the positions of head coach and two assistants in each of the four age groups.
Said Warburton, now aged 66:
“All this is under the umbrella of Oldham RLFC. The club is very keen to push rugby league in Oldham at all times and we feel town-team rugby is a great starting point.
“ To a youngster, and I know this from personal experience, there is nothing like dragging red and white hoops over your heads and telling people you are playing for Oldham.
“My dream, and I know it’s Mike Ford’s too, is to see a return to the days when playing for your town meant the world to a kid."
“I know we’ll come up against major obstacles, like paying for everything, but we’ll cross those bridges when we get to them. For now, we need to get going and to make a start and that’s what we intend to do.”
