TONY Benson has marked his first month in charge of the Roughyeds by revealing his delight with the way things have gone thus far.
The Kiwi, who replaced Steve Deakin following the club’s second consecutive Grand Final defeat last season, has been charged with the responsibility of winning promotion in 2009.
Having got his feet under the table, Benson told the Advertiser how pleased he was that he could just get on with the business of coaching and nothing else.
While chief executive Chris Hamilton has got on with the business of recruiting players, Benson has been putting the squad through their pre-season paces.
He said: "It’s been brilliant actually. I’ve been really impressed with the club and its structure, the way it all works and how well organised it is – it’s a seriously good club.
"What that allows me to do is coach. Everyone takes that for granted but everyone at Oldham knows what they’re doing and I’m not surprised they’ve been successful over the past couple of years.
"As far as the pre-season work goes, we have different phases for different parts of the campaign.
"The first thing we did was get ourselves in some sort of condition, working on strength and through skills.
"We’ve had a couple of weights sessions that were split to either 6.30am or 6.30pm, the players having the choice which one they attend.
"Monday night is a conditioning night and on a Saturday morning, we’ve been going to various locations for mental and physical building sessions.
"They’ve been physically demanding sessions where the players have been taken out of their comfort zones to teach them that they have more in their system than they perhaps realise.
"The players’ reaction has been positive, they’ve had their heads down for five weeks and have already done one fitness test about a month ago.
"The results were pretty promising but we’ve got another one on January 9 and we’re expecting to see a big improvement by everybody."
While Benson has been putting the players through their paces, the club has been busy signing players in a bid to win promotion at the third time of asking.
Currently, he has 27 first-team players on contract for 2009 as well as five reserve players and the injured Ben Seru.
A large squad can be a double-edged sword though: while it is nice to have the luxury of swapping players around, there can also be some who are unhappy at a lack of regulare matches.
There is also the small matter of squad numbers for 2009 with supporters looking to see who gets the numbers from one to 17, hoping that might give the game away in terms of a starting line-up.
Benson said: "There’ll be times when some pretty good players don’t get a game but I think the most important role any player has is to realise they’re part of a squad trying to win a competition.
"I think a lot of people have found that out too late in the past when they’ve focused purely on the first-team players.
"In terms of squad numbers, what supporters will see is who has worked the hardest over this period.
"I’ve got five reserve players on professional contracts as well, so the first thing I said to the squad was that I didn’t care about their pasts, it’s the future that concerns me.
"There’s an equal opportunity for all of the spots for every player, including the captaincy as well. Nothing has been decided yet.
"I had a chat with Marcus St Hilaire and said to him: ‘You’ve been around for about 1,000 years and done about 15,000 pre-seasons, what keeps you motivated?’
"His answer was: ‘I’ve got to work hard if I want to get a place in the team’ which shows the attitude they have. It’s also important that we’re close to the reserve team. Houghie (John Hough) and Leo Casey have been training with us and will continue to do so.
"With having a squad of 27, a few of them will end up playing with the reserves at some point, so it’s important we work together, play the same game and have the same philosophy on how we play. We’ll definitely be working as a unit and they’re becoming very involved."
Roughyeds’ chairman Bill Quinn certainly believes that Benson has the attributes to be a successful coach with Oldham and take the club where he wants them to go.
While the likes of Ellery Hanley, Karl Harrison and Paul Cullen were all linked with the Oldham coach’s job through the media, Messrs Quinn and Hamilton was delighted with Benson’s approach during the interview process.
He said: "Tony conducted himself fantastically throughout all the meetings and discussions.
"He proved to ourselves that he definitely has the ability, ambition and desire which matches the ethos of the club..
"We believe that the decision is probably one of the most important decisions taken since the club was reformed given the fact the club has made great strides forward and we obviously need to continue the momentum that’s been generated."
Contracted players for 2009
- David Allen
- Chris Baines
- Andy Ballard
- Anthony Bingham*
- Jason Boults
- Daryl Cardiss
- Chris Clarke*
- James Coyle
- Thomas Coyle
- Tommy Goulden
- Lee Greenwood
- Danny Halliwell
- Ben Heaton*
- Paul Highton
- Simeon Hoyle
- Jamie I’Anson
- Phil Joseph
- Wayne Kerr
- Craig Littler
- Scott Mansfield*
- Luke Menzies
- Richard Mervill
- Paul O’Connor
- Lucas Onyango
- Paul Reilly
- Rob Roberts
- Craig Robinson
- Neil Roden
- Marcus St Hilaire
- Ben Seru**
- Mark Smith*
- Luke Sutton
- Gary Sykes
* = reserve team players; ** = injured
