New challenge for Bradbury

Phil Bradbury - new challenge

Rugby League: PHIL Bradbury has landed a new role at BARLA.

The 60-year-old, from Oldham, accepted a place on the committee and will have responsibilities including helping to organise the National Cup final and the annual presentation night.

Bradbury comes in at a challenging time for the amateur game’s governing body and is aiming to emulate other administrators from the town.

“I feel privileged to follow in the footsteps of people like Wally Walker and Nigel Hollingsworth and I just hope I can do as much as they have done for the game in Oldham and Lancashire,” he said.

Bradbury has had a long and varied association with the sport, from playing to coaching at Rochdale Hornets, through refereeing and now on the administrative side.

One of the biggest challenges he and his BARLA colleagues face is in preparing for a likely wholesale switch of the amateur game from winter to summer, possibly as early as 2012 — a change the amateur body’s own survey suggests up to 80-per-cent of amateur clubs are set against.

But though it is the RFL that is seen to be driving such a move, Bradbury defends the role of BARLA in the bigger picture.

“We are now under the banner of the RFL, but we are still the body for the amateur game,” added Bradbury, who is also the new secretary of the Oldham Amateur League, replacing Nigel Hollingsworth who takes up the post of treasurer.

“In the last three months we have run tours to South Africa, which two Oldham lads went on, Ukraine and Russia.

“For every amateur player prepared to put the effort in, that is a great prize and a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”