FOUR DAYS TO GO . . . and our big prop Jack Coventry, who cuts a striking figure on the drive with his big stature and his bright red scrum cap, talks about Sunday’s game, about how he’s enjoying being an Oldham player and about what it’s like going head to head with your former team.
Jack was at Cougar Park for three seasons — one of them the curtailed 2020 year — before joining Roughyeds last autumn. He played 14 games for the Big Cats in 2021, so he should know what he’s talking about when he opens his mouth on Keighley.
He won’t be the only ex-Cougar in our 21-man squad, though, when Stu Littler names it at the end of the week.
Jack Arnold (eight games), Jason Muranka (four) and Ryan Wright (16) all played for Keighley as recently as last season, while Will Cooke and Emmerson Whittel have performed there in previous years.
Will Arnold, another big forward, make his Oldham debut at weekend ? That’s one of the imponderables as Stu weighs up all his options, but he has confirmed that the only definite non-starter at this stage is Sean Slater (knee), although Jason Muranka sees a head-injury consultant on Thursday and is “highly unlikely” to be available for the big kick-off.
Arnold, Jordan Andrade and Calvin Wellington, none of whom played in the friendly at Keighley which we won 34-26 a fortnight ago, will all be available this time so our boss will have some head-scratching to do before he names his 21 and before he cuts it, first to 18 and then to 17.
Coventry, meanwhile, talked refreshingly about:
Sunday’s game:
“We want to make the Vestacare Stadium a fortress and with the squad we’ve got I think we can do it.
“Cougars tend to swap and change a bit in team selection so it’s difficult to predict what their team will be, but it will be Rhys Lovegrove’s strongest outfit.
“Their chief go-to players are Scott Murrell, Jake Webster and Branden Santi, but it’s up to us to shut them down and then take it from there.”
His first few months at Oldham:
“It’s been great, like a breath of fresh air. I was at Keighley a long time and its refreshing to do things differently and in a way that suits my style. The coaches and the lads are all great too.”
Playing against a former team:
“It’s always good to go up against former teammates. You’re usually on the receiving end of a few extra little digs, but that’s to be expected and is par for the course. I enjoyed the friendly at Keighley a fortnight ago. It was a challenge, but I’ve always liked a challenge. This Sunday will be another big challenge, make no mistake. This time it’s a REAL game.”
Back to Littler. Our head coach added:
“The boys are ready to go. It’s been a long, long off-season, but we have some real quality in there.
“We ran the rule over each other in the warm-up game at their place, but there were a lot of changes made during the game and you couldn’t read too much into it, although it was good to win. We’ll certainly need to turn up on Sunday, although we are under no illusions about what we’ll have to do to win.
“The club is doing a lot of promotional work for this game, based on Mothers’ Day and Bring A Friend. We are trying to build momentum on and off the pitch. We would hope to make Vestacare an intimidating place for away teams and our great fans can play a direct role in that.
“We urge them to turn up in force; to stand proud and sing long; and to cheer us on to victory.”
