Ford podcast shows that Oldham RL are now ‘big news’

THE very fact that Mike Ford is on a podcast with Tanya Arnold of the BBC shows that Oldham RLFC is now big news in Rugby League. It came, of course, only a short time after the Sean Long piece with Craig White. We are on the up, that's for sure.

We've already had regional BBC cameras at Boundary Park to celebrate automatic promotion to the Betfred Championship as title winners of Betfred League One and now comes Ford's 'Crossing the Codes' podcast on BBC Radio Five Live – surely an indication that his home-town rugby league club is back in the national spotlight.

The cynics up here in League land will inevitably regard Fordy as a League lad who grew up in Oldham and perhaps find themselves convinced that he was thrust into the national spotlight more because of his coaching connections in Union rather than his prowess as a player in League.

Do you honestly think, hand on heart, that Ford's talents as a player with Wigan, Leigh, Oldham, Castleford etc thrust him into the public eye in downtown Dartmouth, or was it as the father of a rather well-known Union international who himself (Mike that is) was involved with England and with Ireland and British Lions to say nothing of his coaching spells with Saracens, Bath and Leicester, among others at home and abroad.

Union folk might well have heard all about Adrian Alexander and Bob Mordell, maybe even Ken Wilson from his days with the RAF and with Gloucester, but you can wager an old sod off Oldham Edge to a piece of Twickers turf that Joe Bloggs in Maidstone would never have heard of Mike Ford in the days when he toured Down Under with Great Britain.

Let me give you an example of what I mean.

Back in the mists of time England RU were preparing for a tilt with Australia in Sydney at a World Cup final. My sister-in-law, who lived near Burton-on-Trent, had never shown any interest in any sport all her life but she excitedly took me on one side during one visit to their home to show me a huge pic of Johnny Wilkinson on the inside of her pantry door. She genuinely thought I would be in raptures.

Perhaps I'm one of those old cynics myself.

Nevertheless, Mike does have three sons in Union and he did coach at the top level in the 'posh' code so it WAS a big shout for Oldham RLFC when he was interviewed by Tanya.

Whether it would have happened had he not "crossed the codes" is perhaps another argument for another day. The fact is he DID – and he got us some national publicity on the back of that, which can't be bad.

More interesting, is the fact that he enjoyed his time in Union to such an extent that he is talking of something I referred to 20 years ago when Union went professional – a coming together of the game that split in 1895. It was about the time there was much talk of club mergers in League and I predicted that there would come a time when there would be talk of "the merger to beat all mergers", that of the two codes.

It's taken more than 20 years for anyone to even mention it, but mention it Mike did and despite inevitable opposition from both sets of fans, I think it could be on one day.

In the meantime, we'll continue to enjoy League; continue to see Bill and Mike take Roughyeds along the road to glory; continue to see the very obvious advances in social media output; and continue to see this Oldham on the national stage and going places.

Inadvertently, Ford's flirtation with the national rugby scene might have had something to do with his time in Union . . . but does that really matter in the great scheme of things?

What really matters, surely, Is that this great club of ours got unrivalled publicity all over the globe. And as a league man who has been in the publicity business all his life, I can only give Tanya and Mike my blessings.

IT WAS GREAT STUFF – AND IT COULD ONLY ENHANCE ALL THE TERRIFIC THINGS THAT ARE GOING ON NOW TO PUSH THE CLUB FORWARD.