Naylor: Everyone will be neck and neck

Oldham head coach Scott Naylor doesn’t believe there will be group of teams that will steal away from the rest in the Championship this year and is predicting a tight competition.

Hull KR will feature in the Championship after their relegation from Super League with Rochdale and Toulouse the other new sides after their respective promotions from League 1.

“I don’t think you’ll end up with a breakaway of your top six or seven clubs,” Naylor told Love Rugby League.

“It’s going to be an interesting season and I can see everyone beating everyone.”

Oldham might have had a shorter pre-season than most teams but Naylor insisted it was needed after the rigours of last year.

The Roughyeds maintained their Championship status by finishing three points clear of Workington Town and Whitehaven, who were both subsequently relegated.

“We have been in since mid-November which is probably a bit short in normal terms but we decided to do that because we had a long tough season last time,” Naylor said.

“We only had one break from the beginning of January until the end of September.”

Looking ahead to the new campaign and Naylor admits improvements each season are not so easy.

“The increments become harder when you get into the Championship,” he said.

“Even if it’s a place higher in the table or just winning more games.

“As long as it’s an improvement and as long as we can class it at the end of the season as an improvement then to me that’ll be a successful year.”

There is around a month until the new campaign gets underway and Naylor believes another addition to the squad is highly likely.

“I’ll be surprised if we don’t sign one more player at least before the start of the season,” Naylor said.

“The squad that starts our season has never yet been the one that finishes it so we always end up changing things during the season but I think that’s healthy.”