REMEMBER Joe McNicholas? Of course you do. He was the winger from Rochdale who played for the Bears and then signed again when the Bears, as he put it, “went belly up.”
In total Joe played more than 100 games for Oldham before emigrating to Australia and disappearing off the radar until we heard he had landed a job with NRL giants Penrith Panthers, writes ROGER HALSTEAD.
That was seven years ago. Now aged 45, Joe is still working for Panthers and is a key member of their development team, over here with the Penrith party for the World Club Challenge showdown with Wigan Warriors.
Oldham go to Swinton Lions tomorrow (Sunday) in the fourth round of the Betfred Challenge Cup (6pm kick-off) and to give you some idea of the players who were Joe’s team mates, here is the Oldham team which lost 30-14 at Rochdale in the same stage of the same competition in February, 2000: Mark Sibson; Joey Hayes, Peter Ferris, Pat Rich, Joe McNicholas; Tom O’Reilly, Anthony Gibbons; Jason Clegg, John Hough. Andy Procter (capt), Mark Campbell, Tate Moseley, Kevin Mannion, Subs: Keith Brennan, Chris Holland, Leo Casey. Danny Guest.
Joe has never forgotten those early days and the friendship he struck at Oldham RLFC with a player who didn’t play in the above team – clever half-back Craig Barker.
Now a coach in the enterprising junior section at Waterhead ARLFC , Barker invited Joe to a Q and A evening at Waterhead and McNicholas was more than happy to oblige and to retrace the roots of his youth.
“It was a great night at Waterhead,” he recalled this week, “and it was brilliant to meet up again with Craig, a good player and a nice guy.”
“It was also great to meet up again with Mike Ford when he and Sean Long came to Carrington, where Sale Skarks train, to watch a Penrith training session. I was always grateful to Oldham for giving me a second chance after what happened to the Bears. I don’t know much about what’s happening at Oldham right now, to be honest, but the club does seem to be going from strength to strength and that’s great.”
Joe’s sister lives in Littleborough and his parents in Rochdale. He comes over from Sydney every two years or so and he was here a few weeks back when he and a Penrith colleague were sent over by Panthers to check out hotels, training facilities etc ahead of the NRL champions’ trip to these parts to do battle with mighty Wigan.
He added, with more than a few traces of an Aussie accent:
“John Hough and I were two of the first players to sign for Oldham after the Bears had gone and I really enjoyed my time there. I’ve been with Panthers for a long time now and it’s good to know that Oldham are now working hard to involve the local community. We’ve done something very similar at Penrith, always talking of how we, as a club, have pride in Penrith and how much we attach importance to working with local organisations and especially the junior rugby league clubs in Penrith.”
Added Ford:
“Sean (Long) knew a lot of the Penrith people because of his international connections. He was assistant coach of Samoa for a spell and he was very friendly with two of the Penrith guys as a direct result of that.”
