OLDHAM RLFC director Haydn Walker, full-time at the club and Mike Ford’s right-hand man (they also worked together as coach and assistant coach in a previous life at Oldham) kept a promise to attend a Players’ Assn monthly meeting at Springhead last night and, furthermore, said he hoped to represent the parent club at each monthly meeting in future.
Haydn was introduced to those present and then gave a very positive and upbeat update on all that’s going on at the club with particular reference to both team performances and other issues behind the scenes, concerning off-field matters such as match-day happenings at Boundary Park, the development of Melrose, the Foundation etc, etc.
He said:
“We are very happy with what’s happening on the field, namely two wins and a draw so far under Sean (Long), including home games against the 1895 Cup holders and the side that has won promotion to Super League. However, high expectation has to be managed. I’ve heard it said that we’ll go through the League One season unbeaten, but that doesn;’t happen in Rugby League very often. The main thing is that we get promotion. Hopefully, the squad we’ve assembled will be good enough to do that.
“We go to Barrow in the Challenge Cup this Saturday and there are no easy games up there, but the fact that it’s on TV tells us a lot about how others see the progress we are making as a club. That in itself is very encouraging.”
He said the club had high hopes of new commercial man Keiran O’Reilly, a young chap who was local with a rugby league background who had done superbly well in his short time at the club, His strategy was “a little bit different” but figures proved how well he was doing, As a guide, sponsorship income this year was up five times higher than last year and that was important because the board didn’t want a “Super League or bust” situation and was keen to establish a sound financial structure that could cope with whatever the future had in store for the club. Cor Blimey!
He also thanked Joe Warburton for the great job he was doing in relation to the town’s youth and the development locally of the girls and women’s game, on which Beth Sutcliffe was working hard and for which an application for a grant had gone in to Sport England.
Also at the meeting it was revealed that a lot of members still needed to pay 2024 subs.
