Sean Long’s Mid-Term Update

Head coach Sean Long has vowed that his Oldham players will head into the second half of the season "fitter, faster and stronger" after fighting through an injury crisis to sit third in the Betfred Championship.

After back-to-back wins over Halifax and Hunslet, the Roughyeds players have been afforded a few days off before ramping up preparations for the huge trip to face leaders Toulouse on June 21st.

And the Oldham boss has given an in-depth assessment of the season so far on a brand new episode of The Boundary Line, exclusive to our YouTube channel Roughyeds TV.

"We have come through a lot of adversity and to be sat in third at the halfway point shows the togetherness of the team," said Long.

The key thing I have learned is that we are a resilient bunch. We have asked players to play out of position and do what is best for the team and they have done everything I have asked of them.

We will have a rest and come back fitter, faster, stronger."

After gaining promotion from League 1 as champions, Oldham enjoyed a strong start to 2025 to set the early pace at the top of the Championship table.

An avalanche of serious injuries to key players including captain Jordan Turner, vice-captain Matty Wildie, centres Iain Thornley and Jumah Sambou, wingers Mo Agoro and Kieran Dixon and former New Zealand international Elijah Taylor stretched the Roughyeds squad, with tough defeats coming at home to Bradford, Toulouse and then Featherstone in the semi-final of the 1895 Cup.

"I think we are hopefully over the injury crisis now," said Long.

Riley Dean has picked up a problem and has had a scan so we will see about that. Elijah, Dixon and Wildie will be coming back and Brad Gallagher won't be far off. ET is almost ready and could be there for Toulouse. Then it will be Dixon and Wildie.

We trained really hard and had a tough pre-season so I knew we would start the season well and we did.

We just have been battered by injuries but we are coming good again now. If we are in the mixer at this point then what I noticed from last year is that the top six generally stays the top six. You might get an anomaly like York coming through with a wet sail but it is very hard to break into the top six at the halfway point.

I want us to come back now and learn from any mistakes I or the team might have made so far."

The Oldham boss also revealed how he has tried to instil a feel-good factor at the Netpar Training Centre, hoping that a happy squad can translate to exciting performances on the field.

"We are a team that likes to enjoy ourselves. We thrive on having fun. I try to make it more upbeat because when you are grafting all day at work you don't want to come to training and get flogged. But I keep our standards high and ensure we are doing the right things on and off the field.

This competition is really tough and we knew that - League 1 and the Championship are worlds apart. There are no 'gimmes' this year and we have had some good wins. There have been a couple of games we have drawn where we have had to keep fighting and that was outstanding. We have only lost three games and that is what I am most happy about because none of the lads like losing. It gets you down and we don't want that."

So next up for Long's men is a trip to the south of France to face table-toppers Toulouse on Saturday 21st June with a big following of Oldham fans anticipated to travel.

"Toulouse have the best defence in the competition and we are the team who have scored the most against them so far with 18 and that was on a bad day!

We have probably the second best attack in the comp but the fourth or fifth best defence so that is a tidy up for us moving forwards."