1895 Cup – and a first-ever Wembley – will be the big attraction, says Turner

SO, what do we know now that we didn't know before Saturday's launch of the 2025 season in the public bar at Boundary Park?

Quite a lot really, starting with club captain Jordan Turner's observation that, for him, the biggest target in the coming season would be to take Oldham to Wembley for the final of the 1895 Cup.

That comment alone proved to me that Jordan knows his onions. No matter how well Roughyeds perform in the Championship in their bid to consolidate in tier two and eventually take Oldham to Super League they will NOT be in the top flight in 2026.

And if Oldham went to Wembley and finished reasonably well positioned in the Championship in 2025, after taking League One by storm in 2024, wouldn't that go down well with IMG?

The 1895 Cup is tailor-made for a club like Oldham. Super League clubs are not involved so as long as Sean Long's 2024 heroes do reasonably well in the league, they can provide this town of ours with its biggest and most celebrated sporting occasion since the boys in blue went to Wembley in Joe Royle's "pinch me" year of 1990, losing 1-0 to the late Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest, 'Cloughy' himself admitting it was an unjust result on the balance of play.

After Saturday's Oldham Rugby launch party and 2025 squad announcement, club official John Chadwick told me:

"To see Oldham Rugby at Wembley would be an astonishing thing for the town and for Oldhamers everywhere. It's not quite the same as the Challenge Cup, we all know that, but if we were to go to Wembley even in the 1895 Cup final, the town would go crazy. As an Oldham lad, Jordan has that sussed and all power to his elbow.

The club has never enjoyed a big pay day from Wembley, a big hit if you like, and many would say that's the only thing that separates us from the likes of Featherstone Rovers, Widnes Vikings, Halifax Panthers, Bradford Bulls etc. I'm confident that with the squad we've assembled we can, at the very least, hold our own in tier two, but to get to Wembley would be something very special, as Jordan points out."

In answer to a question from the floor, Turner also said that the club's biggest challenge would be to manage expectation when every club in the league would be out to lower their colours.

Spot-on again Jordan. I'm sure the squad, coaches Sean Long and Joe Wardle, and a backroom staff which includes new head of performance, Andrew Dixon, have more than enough collective experience to handle it, but I hope the fans don't run away with the idea that Championship rugby will be similar to that in League One.

Keighley won nearly every game in League One, went up, and quickly came back down again with their tails beneath their legs and with a whole string of defeats.

I'm sure Oldham will do better than that, but please don't think it's going to be a walk in the park. I stick with that assessment even with the latest news that the outstanding Josh Drinkwater will be here.

So what else do we know for certain from the official launch?

At that stage we didn't have the fixtures, of course — and we certainly didn't know for sure that we were getting a player of Drinkwater's sublime skills and precious pedigree.

There had been ample speculative messages on social media and general guesswork, some of which was spot-on, but as I've pointed out several times across the years there are often times when a club can't release news of a signing as soon as it would like or, if nothing else, ii would not be in the best interests of the player or of one of the clubs involved, in this case be it Oldham or Warrington

As recently as Saturday last, Oldham lips were sealed, but the signing was eventually confirmed by the club on Wednesday and with the league fixtures out the previous day, the guessing game quickly became the 'can't wait' game as eager expectation swept though the club.

Anyway, enough of the Drinkwater signing just for now and back to the season's big launch. It was Saturday Night Fever all right as George Riley introduced on stage players and their squad numbers as follows:

1, Logan Astley; 2, Kieran Dixon; 3, Jordan Turner; 4, Iain Thornley; 5, Mo Agoro; 6, Danny Craven; 7, Riley Dean; 8, Gil Dudson; 9.Matty Wildie; 10, Owen Farnworth; 11, Matty Ashurst; 12, Adam Lawton; 13, Adam Milner; 14, Bailey Aldridge; 15, Jay Chapelhow; 16, Pat Moran; 17, Elijah Taylor; 18, Jumah Sambou; 19, Ted Chapelhow; 20,Jack Johnson; 21, Lewis Baxter; 22, Cian Tyrer; 23, Josh Drinkwater; 24, Ben O'Keefe; 25, Craig Kopczak; 26, Brad Gallagher; 27,Ben Forster; 28, Mackenzie Yei; 29, Marcus Geener; 30, George Hirst (subject to Wigan requirements on a match-to-match basis); 31, PLT (here from Hull KR on long-term loan),

Also listed and available for sponsorship are assistant coach Joe Wardle (No. 32) and head coach Sean Long, who will be no 33.

After that, there was a Q and A with the players whose over-riding theme, understandably looking at the sheer quality of the assembled squad (and we hadn't announced the arrival of Josh at that stage) was competition and how hard it would be to get a place and then keep it.

Danny Craven, one of three half-backs in the squad alongside Riley Dean and Josh Drinkwater, said: "Everyone wants to be in the 17. Competition will be the name of the game."

The 23 shirt was left vacant for the anticipated signing, which we learned later was the afore-mentioned Aussie super-star Drinkwater.

Kiwi Elijah Taylor said: "We are all hungry for it." And Adam Milner added: "There are exciting times ahead. Now that I'm part time I've got myself a job and I'm ready to give this new challenge my best shot."

Chairman Bill Quinn, whose financial backing is making all this possible, told fans: "What we have achieved in the past 20 months is unbelievable. We want to hit the top on the field, obviously, but our main objective, as we have always said, is kids, the Pathway programme, and the development of Melrose where we have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds"

Managing director Mike Ford, another key figure in the overall operation, went on: "Our No 1 priority is the kids. We want them to want to play at Boundary Park in front of their families. Marcus Geener is our first signing from the local community game and although the first team is paramount, as our signings show, Joe Wardle is going to take our new under-18s team."

Head coach Sean Long said the assembled squad was a good fit for the Oldham DNA which was based on hard work generally and hard work for each other.

Bill Quinn said he hoped fans would turn up at Melrose to watch training, as they used to do at Watersheddings,

The last word belonged to Long, who said: "The Championship will be tough — very tough. I feel we'll be ok against the likes of Bradford, Featherstone and Toulouse. The lads will be up for games like that and if we have the right attitude we will be alright.

"The big test will come when we go to places like Barrow and Batley."

IT WAS ANOTHER POSITIVE OLDHAM MEET-UP. THE CLUB IS GOING PLACES — NO DOUBT ABOUT THAT.