What a pleasure to meet up again with Paul Lord and John Cogger

It was handshakes all round at Boundary Park on Sunday when Paul Lord and John Cogger were there to watch today’s mighty Roughyeds and to receive their Heritage Certificates at half-time.

Lordy, a half-back who could run like a deer, was converted into a left-winger by Tony Barrow, and Cogger, he of the long, golden locks and teddy-boy looks (typically, a young Aussie with one eye on the fashion of the day) were in the second division team that Barrow fashioned into a team of all talents.

To see Cogger back from the other side of the world in the town where he was once a legend, was something very special indeed, With due respect to Lordy, who lives near Wakefield just down the M62, there’s a difference in coming 12,000 miles from Sydney on a once-in-a-lifetime trip and getting out the car and driving over the hill.

No one was closer to the players back then than John Watkins. He didn’t only run on with the sponge. He was their talisman, guide, mentor and friend. To the players, John was the guy who knew everyone at Watersheddings, who knew every nook and cranny up there, who had the ear of the powers-that-be, who was the intermediary twixt dressing room and boardroom.

Three decades on, John is still close to the club as a leading official of the Players’ Association and the sort of guy anyway whom you associate with authority, He was on the pitch with the official party when Cogger and Lord received their heritage certificates.

“The thing that struck me about it,” he said, “was the number of kids in Oldham shirts who wanted John to put his signature on the shirt. It was a real sign of the times – an indication that things are moving in the right direction. The kids were too young to remember him playing. They might have heard their dads talk about him, but that’s all. Fordy must have been delighted because their very presence showed his message was getting through.”

Now aged 61, Cogger and Lord were chatting as though they were only 12 months out of their playing days. Lord will always be remembered, of course, for the try that never was in a Challenge Cup semi-final against Warrington. That was the year Oldham finished third in the Stones Bitter Second Division, behind Hull KR and Rochdale, won promotion, reached the Lancashire Cup Final and the Challenge Cup semi-final and numbered Wigan, St Helens and world club champions Widnes among their many cup victims.

I always thought the third-round Challenge Cup win at Widnes was their finest hour, but many believed it was the last game of the season at Old Trafford when they came back from the dead – 29-8 down – to pip Hull KR 30-29 with Fordy lifting the trophy and winning the man-of-the-match award.

Cogger didn’t play in that game because he had to fly home to Sydney with seven games to go, but he and Lord were key members of the team in that 89-90 season when our team from the Second Division took on the best Britain had to offer, went close to going to Wembley and won 36 games from a possible 43.

Ford (36 games) was fifth in the appearance chart behind Richard Russell (41). Paul Lord (40), Brett Clark (38) and John Fieldhouse (38); It was the versatile Russell who filled-in for Cogger at loose-forward in the Old Trafford spectacular.

The things I recall best of that memorable day in the chairmanship of John Chadwick were the Tommy Martyn cartwheel after he scored the winning try, the disbelief of most Oldham fans that we had actually done it; the sheer ecstasy within the camp; the triumphant ride home up Oldham Road on an open-decked bus; Tina Turner blasting out ‘Simply The Best’ as we filled the square outside the Civic Centre; Tony Barrow’s victory speech; what the Mayor said; the civic reception.

It makes the hairs on your neck stand up – and it might happen again if the long-term plans of Bill and Mike come to fruition.