Sean Long appointed Oldham head coach: ‘The vision of the club and facilities we’ve got is something that attracted me’

Great Britain legend Sean Long has been appointed as the new head coach of ambitious League One club Oldham on a three-year contract.

The 47-year-old has put pen to paper on a deal with the Roughyeds until at least the end of the 2026 campaign.

Earlier this week, Wakefield confirmed that Long had left his role as the club’s assistant coach having arrived at Belle Vue in August.

On taking over the reins at Oldham, Long said: “Oldham has been a hotbed of rugby for many, many years, and the prospect of getting them back to where they should be, pushed me (to sign) and I didn’t really have to think about it.

“The vision of the club and the facilities we’ve got is something that attracted me.

“We’ve got a very good squad and next season we want to win the league and, building on that, the vision is to go all the way.”

Sean Long: We want to play some entertaining

Long has an extensive coaching CV, having a wealth of experience in rugby league and rugby union.

The St Helens great spent a number of years as assistant at the Saints, Salford and Wigan. He was part of the Samoa coaching staff in the 2013 and 2017 World Cups as well as being involved with France in the 2021 tournament.

Long says he wants to help bring an attractive style of rugby to Boundary Park in 2024.

He told the club website: “We have very high standards and, even though we are in League One, we won’t be preparing and training like a League One team – we will be pushing them all the way.

“We will defend aggressively and, in possession, we like to throw the ball around and give licence to the lads to play what they see and express themselves.

“We need to lay the platform with the big forwards that we’ve got, but we want to give our outside-backs as much of the ball as possible to get our fans engaged and play some entertaining rugby.”

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