Sutton agrees Roughyeds deal

Richard Mervill: One of four Roughyeds in the team of the season.

OLDHAM Roughyeds believe they have snared a player with bags of potential in prop forward Luke Sutton, who has re-signed for the club on a one-year deal.

The former Keighley player (22) has appeared in the first team sporadically since joining halfway through the campaign, his most memorable performance coming in the 36-16 home defeat of Doncaster in mid-July when he scored a try in front of the Sky Sports cameras after coming off the bench.

The hope now is that a decent pre-season programme can help the big front row man — who spent 13 formative years in Brisbane — find the sort of fitness levels that will help him become a regular in an Oldham shirt.

“Luke has really enjoyed it since he came here,” said Roughyeds chief executive Chris Hamilton.

“He was a little bit behind the eight-ball when he arrived, but we spoke to him at length about the need to get a good pre-season programme in and we hope that when he is up to full speed he can be a very good player for us.”

Meanwhile, Oldham officials were celebrating last night after four of the club’s players were named in the National League Two representative side at the annual presentation evening at Elland Road last night.

Paul O’Connor, who picked up four awards at the club’s presentation dinner last week, was in at full-back and there were also places in the mythical side for Marcus St Hilaire at centre, Richard Mervill at prop and Danny Halliwell in the second row.

Departing Barrow forward Dave Armitstead was named as NL2 player of the year, with Doncaster’s Luke Gale getting the young player’s award and Gateshead’s Dave Woods picking up the coach’s equivalent.

In NL1, Celtic Crusaders stand-off Damien Quinn claimed top prize, with a Salford double for Richie Myler as young player of the year and Shaun McRae as top coach.

Halifax were named club of the year for their general progress and Doncaster were judged to have the best community programme.

National League Two team of the season: Paul O’Connor (Oldham); Stewart Sanderson (Gateshead Thunder), Marcus St Hilaire (Oldham), Ben McAlpine (Gateshead Thunder), James Nixon (Barrow Raiders); Kyle Briggs (Doncaster), Dan Russell (Gateshead Thunder); Andy Shickell (Keighley Cougars), Corey Lawrie (Doncaster), Richard Mervill (Oldham), Michael Knowles (Gateshead Thunder), Danny Halliwell (Oldham), Dave Armitstead (Barrow Raiders).




CHRIS Hamilton appears on Channel M’s Rugby League Show, Code X111, starting at 7pm as part of the build-up to Sunday’s NL2 Grand Final. He is also a studio guest of Jack Dearden on Radio Manchester’s Rugby League Hour, starting at 7pm on Thursday.