New faces on show

BIG JOB: Oldham half-back Jamie Dallimore (right) will have plenty of responsibility this season.

Roughyeds fans’ first opportunity to view class of 2012
OLDHAM RL fans will get their first look at the club’s new signings in the Law Cup clash with Rochdale Hornets at Whitebank on January 2.

Coach Tony Benson plans to bring in the New Year by showcasing all his new players apart from the club’s latest recruit, full-back Chris Murphy.

Props Danny Heaton and Bruce Johnson and second-row pair Paul Smith and Neil Rigby are being lined up for debuts alongside a trio of first-timers from last season’s reserve team, Danny Langtree, David Cookson and Alex Thompson.

“All the new guys have done well over the past few weeks in training,” said Benson, “and now I can get an early look at them in a game. Games like the Law Cup fixture have a double purpose — they allow me and the coaching staff to run the rule over the players, but they also give the players an early opportunity to send out a message to us.

“There is going to be a lot of competition for places in 2012, particularly in the forwards, and everyone is fully aware of that. I want to look at the younger players who have stepped up from the reserves as well as the experienced men we have brought in.”

They don’t come much more experienced than 30-year-old Heaton, Johnson (27) and Smith (34), who replaces the 31-year-old Roden cousins, Neil and Martin, as the club’s new senior citizen.

At the other end of the age scale, much will be expected in a crucial season of 19-year-old centre Matthew Fogarty and 23-year-old half-back Jamie Dallimore, who looks set to be asked to shoulder a lot of responsibility for guiding the side around the pitch.

Dallimore has already shown that he can perform well at first-team level, but Langtree, Cookson and Thompson have still to be tested, although back-row forward Thompson’s CV includes a smattering of Super League experience in his Warrington days.

Another young player who will need to prove himself at first-team level is 22-year-old Murphy, the latest rookie to arrive at the club and, like Thompson, a product of the Warrington stable.

He won’t play against Rochdale because he still needs more time to fully recover from a broken ankle and because he had already booked a holiday over New Year before he chose the Roughyeds as the club at which he desired to rebuild his fledgling career.

While enough of a realist to acknowledge that Murphy has a big step to take if he is to command the full-back job on a regular basis, Benson is suitably impressed by what he has seen of the lad in his three weeks at the club.

“He’s sharp, and in good shape,” said the Oldham boss. “He has all the skills of somebody who has gone through the system at a Super League club. All the reports we have had of him are good — as a player, a person and as a young man with the ability and attitude to make progress in the sport.”