League One club confirm departure of key director that’s helped transform club ambitions

Oldham are a club that have shown some serious ambition in the past year and specifically during this off-season with their recruitment, however today that’ve announced that director Simon Winnard will be stepping down immediately.

The off-season has been one of immense positivity for Oldham with statements of intent coming with nearly every signing, truly building a Championship level side within League One thus highlighting their ambition.

It’s been like that for much of the past year with Winnard being one of five to have purchased the club back in March, and since then the team have transformed their ambitions.

Among the 28-man playing squad just a handful remain from that takeover date and there’s also new head coach Sean Long in position, with the ex-St Helens man having brought plenty of his former Featherstone Rovers players to Boundary Park for the upcoming season.

As such the decision for Winnard to step down comes as somewhat of a surprise given the leaps and bounds the team are making off the pitch, something that the club have acknowledged in the statement confirming his departure.

A statement posted on the club site and social media read: “Oldham RLFC can announce director Simon Winnard has decided to step back from his role with the club with immediate effect.

“One of five who acquired the club back in March, Simon was a key member of the team, contributing to the success and growth of the club during that time.

“He helped the club secure a sound IMG score, with foundations put in place to secure a strong B grading.

“Most recently, Simon played a key role in recruiting Beth Sutcliffe as Head of Women’s & Girls Development – an appointment aimed at developing pathways for women’s rugby league in Oldham.”

The club did confirm though that Winnard’s departure was in no part due to his work, explaining that he took the decision to step down on account of personal reasons with Mike Ford offering a sincere statement of thanks too. The club’s statement continued:  “Despite his passion for the club, Simon has decided to step down for personal reasons.

“He has helped re-shape the fortunes of Roughyeds and will be missed.”

Managing director Mike Ford, said: “Everybody at Oldham RLFC would like to express their thanks to Simon for his commitment and invaluable contributions to the club over the past eight months.”

Recently Serious About Rugby League had spoken with head coach Sean Long who had expressed his huge excitement at signing with the club, citing the brilliant off-field work that had helped sell him the dream.

Speaking exclusively to SARL, Long said: “It’s all about culture and the DNA of the club; and standards really, upholding standards within the club, obviously from top to bottom. The standards start from the owners, then myself, then the assistant coaches and then the players; and we then drive the standards to create a good culture.

“I’ve just been a fan of the professionalism of the owners, of the vision they’ve got going forward. That’s what really attracted me to the job.”