PopTart wrote:
I hadn't realised that.
That's quite a team for Oldham.
Oldham have clearly had an influx of new money but they are also in a strong position geographically. With Leigh now established in SL, there are no other teams in the Championship or L1 on that side of the pennines that can offer half-decent salaries for top-end Championship-quality players.
Widnes in particular seem still not to be in a financial position to recruit much quality and it's no accident that the likes of Craven, Lawton and Farnworth - who were probably some of their higher-paid players - were lured to a L1 club.
Moreover, when Fev launched their big cutback at the end of last season, two of the bigger earners, Craig Kopczak and Elijah Taylor, were both obvious targets for Oldham as they both live in Lancashire and avoiding the M62 trek would always play strongly in Oldham's favour. Similarly when Joe Wardle was released by Leigh and Logan Astley by Wigan, there wasn't really another obvious destination for him other than Oldham - it will be the same next season you suspect, anyone released by Leigh/Wigan/Saints/Warrington who doesn't get another SL offer is likely to end up at Oldham especially if as seems certain they are in the Championship.
Leigh had a big advantage for years when they were in the Championship with being the only game in town for players not quite good enough or too old to get a SL gig and now it's Oldham who are in that position.