Signings on the horizon

OLDHAM Rugby League Club expect to sign more players this week as chairman Chris Hamilton and coach Scott Naylor step up their attempts to get the bulk of next season’s squad in place.

This time last year Roughyeds had neither coach nor assistant coach and only one player — long-serving Neil Roden, who was half way through a two-year contract.

A year on, centre David Cookson is in a similar position, having been the only player to sign a two-year agreement when the 2013 contracts were being sorted out.

But this year deals have also been agreed with Phil Joy, Danny Langtree, Sam Gee, Josh Crowley, Michael Ward and new signings Paddy Mooney and Danny Whitmore.

Skipper Lewis Palfrey has previously told the Chronicle he is “very close” to putting pen to paper and it is understood several other members of Naylor’s first-year squad are in contract talks.

Cookson says the fractured jaw he endured in the play-off final expected to have healed naturally by the time the players return next month.

Neither the injury nor the heartbreak of Rochdale’s 32-18 triumph stopped him celebrating his 25th birthday two days later.



At the High Court last Tuesday, lawyers for HM Revenue and Customs agreed to a 21-day adjournment for an outstanding club tax balance of £10,000. Oldham chairman Chris Hamilton said the money would be paid in the next few days.