Naylor aiming to keep core of his squad

PROMOTED Oldham RL will retain the core of this season’s squad in the Championship, says coach of the year Scott Naylor.

Speaking on BBC Radio Manchester, he said the challenge for Roughyeds in their first season of championship rugby would be to stay in the higher division and consolidate their position - ideally with a bigger squad than this year.

“If we finish in mid-table I should get a knighthood,” he said with a smile.

Naylor understands that his part-timers will be going into a league in which some teams are full time.

Naylor and his chairman Chris Hamilton are already working overtime on putting together a 2016 squad they believe will be competitive.

Tom Ashton, Lewis Palfrey, Danny Langtree and Adam Clay have been retained and others will follow, while two new boys have been added, winger Jamel Chisholm and back-row forward Craig Briscoe.

Naylor said the core of the side that clinched promotion were signed from Super League academies three years ago and had been working with him at Whitebank since.

“Some of our lads are at university, or have been in the past three years, but I’ve also got players who work on building sites and who come straight from work to training - where they then get hammered in other ways.”