Former Super League stalwart Gil Dudson lifts lid on part-time transition with top-flight offers revealed

Ben Olawumi
Gil Dudson

Gil Dudson applauds the Salford Red Devils supporters following a game in 2024

Gil Dudson has revealed that he turned down offers to prolong his Super League career before joining Oldham, knowing that he wanted to drop into the semi-professional game for over 12 months.

After penning a two-year deal at Boundary Park ahead of 2025, Dudson – who will turn 35 in June – made his official Roughyeds bow last weekend as they beat community outfit Rochdale Mayfield in the Second Round of the Challenge Cup.

In starting that game, his 299th club career appearance, the veteran prop donned the tenth different shirt of his career – previously representing Crusaders, South Wales Scorpions, Halifax Panthers, Wigan Warriors, Workington Town, Widnes Vikings, Salford Red Devils, Catalans Dragons and Warrington Wolves.

Spending 2024 out on loan at Salford having featured once for Warrington, the veteran prop brought an end to a top-flight career which saw him amass 211 Super League appearances.

And with the transition into part-time rugby league now complete, he isn’t regretting his decision.

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Former Super League stalwart Gil Dudson lifts lid on part-time transition with top-flight offers revealed

Speaking to LoveRugbyLeague, the Cardiff native explained: “It’s been an adjustment, definitely. I’m obviously training at night again and I’ve not done that for many years.

“Getting used to the routine and the rhythm of it has taken a couple of months, but rugby’s rugby and you fall in line pretty quickly.

“I started working last season alongside playing full-time at Salford in my commercial/finance role, so I carried on with that (during the off-season).

Gil Dudson
Gil Dudson in action for Salford Red Devils in 2024

“I had it in my head at the beginning of last season that I wanted to make the transition down to semi-pro.

“I flipped my schedule over so that I could have a bit of a gradiated transition over the next couple of years by picking up my work and bringing that to the level it needed to be at.

“I was really enjoying my time at Salford, and I was umming and ahing about what to do, but then I came and met Bill (Quinn, Chairman) and Mike (Ford, Managing Director) at Oldham along with Sean (Long, head coach).

“When I sat down with them, what they want to do and what they want to achieve, trying to get back in the local community, that was all in line with my views.

“It was an easy decision at the end of the day… there was some interest there for me to stay full-time, but it was on a one-year deal. I’m 34 now, so it was about taking the opportunity to drop down to semi-pro now on a two-year deal.”

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‘I feel like I would have just stagnated had I stayed full-time… my work wouldn’t have kicked on and my rugby would have suffered alongside it’

19-time Wales international Dudson, who won both a Challenge Cup final and a Super League Grand Final during his time at Wigan – joins an Oldham side that have just been promoted back up to the Championship.

Winning the League 1 title under the tutelage of head coach Long last term, the Roughyeds have invested heavily ahead of their return to the second tier – with Dudson among a whole host of big name recruits.

On a move into the semi-professional game, he continued: “Work was getting to the point where I needed to make the transition, because I was so busy with work outside of rugby that I feel like I would have just stagnated had I stayed full-time.

Gil Dudson
Gil Dudson in action for Salford Red Devils in their 2019 Super League Grand Final defeat to St Helens

“My work wouldn’t have kicked on and I feel like my rugby would have suffered alongside it, to be honest. I didn’t want to be in that position.

“It’s going really well, I’m really busy. I was doing everything from 6.30 to 8.30 in the morning, training would start and then I’d pick work back up then in the afternoon/evening.

“Now, I can actually respond to people and be in contact with them while they’re also working during the day, so I’m not taking as long to turn things around.

“It’s brilliant from that point of view because I can pick up a lot more work now.”

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