T'Other Side: Oldham

Head Coach: Sean Long

When Sean Long retired as a player at the end of the 2011 season, he took up a position as an assistant coach at Salford. But when, and where, did he actually take charge of a club as ‘head coach? The answer is May 2013 and the club was Featherstone Rovers. That year Daryl Powell left Fev to take on Castleford, and after a short period with Ryan Sheridan as caretaker coach after which he joined Daryl at Cas, Sean Long and Danny Evans took over the reins at Fev as joint caretaker coaches.

That was followed by further assistant coach roles at St. Helens, Harlequins RU and Leeds.

Finally, in 2024, he became the head coach at Oldham and the club gained promotion after winning 19 out of 20 League One fixtures.

Sean also has had experience of coaching at the international level as assistant coach with both Samoa and France.

His stellar playing career began with Wigan in 1994, and, along the way, he also played for Widnes, St. Helens and Hull FC. His overall club record consists of 374 appearances, 166 tries, 1,004 and 24 drop goals for a total of 2,696 points.

In addition, he played 16 times for Great Britain and 5 times for England.

 

Captain: Matty Wildie

Jordan Turner was the Oldham captain until he retired very recently. Matty Wildie has been the vice-captain, and we suspect he has taken over as captain although that has not been officially confirmed.

Matty usually plays at hooker although during his career he has also played at halfback and loose forward.

He started out at Wakefield in 2010 and during his time there also played on loan at Batley and Doncaster. He joined Dewsbury in 2015. He has had two spells at Fev (2017-2018 and 2022-2023). In between the two spells at Fev he had one year at Bradford and then two at Leigh.

He joined Oldham in 2024.

 

 

Dual Registration and Loan signings

 

Oldham have dual reg agreements with Wigan and Rochdale. So far, in 2025, five Wigan players have played for Oldham: Josh Cartwright (wing), Jacob Douglas (wing), Tom Forber (hooker), Nathan Lowe (wing) and Lukas Mason (second row). They also have Wigan player, George Hirst, on a season long loan.

Four Oldham players have appeared for Rochdale.

They currently have Tom Whitehead (forward) on loan from Warrington.

 

 

The Fev Connection