FEBRUARY WILL be a crucial month for Oldham Rugby League Club in terms of putting finishing touches to preparations for the forthcoming Championship One campaign.
Players will have the chance to stake early claims for first-team places with sound performances in three warm-up games against Barrow Raiders, Swinton Lions and Leigh Centurions.
It’s no coincidence that all three opponents are from a higher division than Roughyeds, coach Scott Naylor believing that his young squad needs to be tested to the limit in order to be fully prepared for what lies ahead.
It’s curtain-up at Barrow on Sunday, February 2 (2pm), then Swinton come to Whitebank on Sunday, February 9 (3pm), followed by the visit of Leigh on Saturday, February 15 (2.30pm).
The under-20s, now coached by Neil Roden, also have a pre-season run out against Keighley Cougars at Whitebank on Wednesday, February 12 (7.45pm).
This month of intense pre-season activity will hopefully see the gathering of momentum too in the quest to add two or three more players to a squad which Naylor believes is already stronger than the one which finished second in the table last season.
A key factor will be the outcome of talks with Super League club Salford, with whom Roughyeds were partnered last season as part of the RFL’s dual-registration policies.
Thanks to that link-up, two of Salford’s brightest young prospects, centre Jon Ford and hooker Adam Files, spent most of the season with Oldham, Files on a season-long loan and Ford mainly on a dual-registration scheme but, for a short spell at least, also on loan.
Their impact can be measured by the fact that Ford was Oldham’s top try scorer with 21 in cup and league and Files was second in the list with 15.
Third came full-back Richard Lepori on 12 and he has left the club, having just graduated from university, to do some travelling and to spend time in Australia.
Tom Whitehead or Steven Nield would seem to be the obvious replacement for Lepori, but Naylor would love to see Ford and Files back at Whitebank for another year if it can be arranged.
Naylor, half way through a two-year contract as head coach, built a new team virtually from scratch on his arrival at Whitebank in the autumn of 2012.
In his first season at the club his new squad was good enough to finish second with 41 points from a possible 48 and with the best away record in the division —- seven wins from eight games on the road.
Over the season as a whole Naylor’s men deserved better than to lose twice in the play-offs to a Rochdale side that finished nine points behind them in the league, but lifted the ultimate prize of promotion.
With the start of his second year at Oldham rapidly approaching he is happy with the quality of the squad he has assembled so far, but recognises the need for more depth.
He said: “We are a little bit short on numbers and there are a couple of areas we need to strengthen in terms of providing cover and giving me the back-up to rotate.
“I’m trying to use my contacts in the game to bring in two or three new men of a quality which would top us up numerically and also give us a really strong squad.”
The first league game is away to South Wales Scorpions on Sunday, March 2.
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