Roughyeds are talk of the town – isn’t that great?

Rugby League is back to where it once was in the sporting ethic of downtown Oldham. Two items on Facebook caught my imagination which, in the great scheme of things, might be construed as not all that important but which indicated, to me at least, that Bill Quinn, Mike Ford, Sean Long and Co have already succeeded beyond our wildest hopes and expectations in putting the Roughyeds back on the sporting map.

Firstly, we were represented in force, led by Roary, at Dr Kershaw's when the local hospice at Heyside held its Christmas Fayre. Then we got an invite by Oldham Council to switch on the town's Christmas lights. I particularly liked the advert which told us that Matty Wildie, club captain Jordan Turner, head coach Sean Long and chairman Bill Quinn would be on stage with the League One trophy.

What a far cry from the days when Ford, then a top man in the Union code and living in far-off places like Leicester, Bath and Toulon in France, feared for the very existence of his home-town Rugby League club and was worried that local lads were no longer interested. They are now, that's for sure.

The signing of Marcus Geener from Waterhead truly is a sure sign that dreams can come true—-not only for Marcus, who is well on the way to playing regularly for his home-town club, but for Ford and the club, who have always insisted that concentration on local talent via the RFL's Pathway programme was one of the main things they wanted to do.

The 18-year-old will continue to play for Waterhead, but he knows for sure he is Oldham-bound and that, as our headline screamed, signals a new era for the club and for its Pathway programme.

Ford knows, of course, that no matter how much work is done at Melrose — that's another story — and how much planning goes into Pathway, there's nothing like a winning squad and an attractive team to get the fans interested again, to increase crowds, to win trophies and to get the town talking rugby again.

We walked away with League One on the back of that mantra, won promotion and now the Championship beckons with the likes of Bradford Bulls, Featherstone Rovers, Halifax Panthers and Widnes Vikings coming to town to watch us in action with a squad that will include former Super League stars and new boys Matty Ashurst, Iain Thornley, Gil Dudson and Adam Milner, plus more new captures in Ben Forster and Lewis Baxter.

PLT is still here on loan to chip in with a spot of razzle-dazzle and I can confirm that when the squad is announced it will include PNG international Mckenzie Yei, who has been here for several months, but hasn't played yet because of serious knee problems. I'm told he has had successful
surgery, however, and it will thus be like having another new player.

Coached by Sean Long and his new assistant Joe Wardle, with Andrew Dixon brought in as new conditioner and head of performance, Oldham are equipped to consolidate in the Championship on their way to Super League.

They are already in pre-season training and the new season will start as early as January 12 when neighbours Rochdale come to Boundary Park in the Law Cup.

Two weeks later, on January 26, we will be in the Challenge Cup and we have still to announce the date of a friendly with Wigan Warriors as part of the George Hirst deal.

League fixtures will be out soon — can't wait — and on Monday, Kyle Amor, no less, will be guest of honour at the club's next Networking get=together.

But what of Melrose ? The transformation there is truly remarkable. I was there last year for the Standard Cup semi-final between Saddleworth Rangers and Waterhead Warriors and when I returned recently for the last Partners meeting, I couldn't believe the difference.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds have been spent on upgrading the facilities including the removal of knotweed, the installation of floodlights, the re-organisation of pitches, including fencing around one of them, and huge amounts of work to the pavilion , which now houses comfortable dressing rooms, a meeting room with digital facilities and new show

Congrats to all concerned and at risk of leaving somebody out, I think the following all deserve mentions: Bill Quinn, our go-ahead chairman and his company, Total Demolition; Connolly's of Wigan, the main contractors, and their director Liam Norbury, an Oldham man and a third-generation Roughyeds supporter; Mike Kivlin and Rugby Oldham; Iain Taylor of Shaw (not to be confused with the former Oldham player of the same name), a former mascot of the club, Mark Shaw, and John and Lynda McAndrew, who run Squad Builder.

In varying degrees, some directly and some on behalf of their organisations, all have helped with the amazing development of Melrose, where the Oldham team will train and where the women's team and the age-group Pathway teams will play. It will also be a community hub — a place for the people where, according to Bill Quinn, transparency will be the key word and there will be nothing "under the counter" relative to anything that goes on there; the club's relations with Hollinwood ARLFC, the lease, use of the facilities, or the Oldham RLFC Foundation which will basically run the operation and which will have a new chief executive in January.

Iain Taylor and I go back a long way. He often visits friends in Napier, Hawke's Bay, North Island, New Zealand and whenever he is over there he is a frequent visitor to our youngest son, David, who runs a popular hostelry, East Pier, on the sea front.

They have a lot in common. Dave, when he was a boy, was a season-long mascot at Oldham while Iain, a former official of Rugby Oldham, is just as fanatical about the club now as he ever was — if not more so.

SO FAR SO GOOD . . . TAKE A BOW ALL CONCERNED.