You can’t keep a go-ahead club down for long

Oldham were bitterly disappointed when a proposal to allow the Championship Grand Final winners to be promoted to Super League was rejected by the RFL Council.

It was supposed to be a secret ballot, but it has come out in League Express that it was proposed by Batley Bulldogs and seconded by Dewsbury Rams.

Because it was rejected, the status quo will apply in the coming season, namely use of the current grading model in which Super League status is determined only by grading score.

As we all know, it's automatic promotion and relegation between League One and the Championship, hence ambitious Oldham's leg-up to the Championship in 2025 as League One title winners with only one league defeat all season.

Said managing director Mike Ford:

The one thing we are adamant about is promotion and relegation across ALL divisions. They've never had promotion and relegation in America or in Australia but here in England, and we gave rugby to the rest of the world, they are in our sporting DNA. They make us tick. They are what we are. They are part of our sporting life.

This guy here (club chairman Bill Quinn) is putting loads of money into the club and we don't want him pulling out because there is nothing finite about getting into Super League.

I'm fully aware of what IMG are doing on so many fronts and we understand, as a club, what they are doing, and why on many issues. But some of their points allocations are flawed, such as what we got for walking away with League One and getting penalised for playing at Boundary Park instead of at Whitebank because it's all to do with the size of the crowd and the capacity of the stadium.

Our gates increased significantly, but so did the ground capacity, so we were penalised. That can't be right and II'm sure they would Mike. In fact, I know they would. And that's what causes me to conclude that you can't keep a go-ahead club like Oldham down for long.

That view is further strengthened by this quote from Bill Quinn himself.

Said Bill, in a League Express piece headed: 'Oldham will persist with promotion proposal':

"It's still on the table so we will keep striving, with others, to create a formula that works for everyone.

"You have to have that jeopardy. It (promotion and relegation) puts bums on seats and creates interest, It is the heart and soul of our game."

AND SO SAY ALL OF US.

The decision to reject Batley's proposal was close, 14 for, 16 against and ten abstentions. That equates to the motion being defeated by 63% to 37%. It sounds greater than it was because of the abstentions so let's get out those lap tops, write to the people concerned and take the lead part in chasing what we want.

This was, of course, a decision by the RFL Council, not by IMG, world leaders in promotional and marketing work, so that should encourage us to be front-runners in the campaign to bring in automatic promotion to the elite division.