Former Super League stalwart departs Championship coaching role as replacement named

Former Super League stalwart Joe Wardle has vacated his role as Oldham’s assistant coach, with Callum Irving named as his replacement.

Wardle, now 34, has spent the last two seasons at Boundary Park working under head coach Sean Long.

Arriving ahead of the 2024 campaign and signing a deal to become a player-assistant, he featured 14 times and helped the Roughyeds to the League 1 title before hanging up his boots.

Remaining solely as an assistant coach in 2025, he and Long led Oldham to a fourth-place finish in the Championship before bowing out of the play-offs at the first hurdle with a shock defeat at home against Halifax Panthers.

Long’s departure was confirmed by the club earlier this month, and now, Wardle has also left the building.

Former Super League stalwart Joe Wardle departs Championship coaching role as replacement named

Born in Halifax, Wardle wrapped up a playing career at Oldham which saw him make a total of 271 appearances, with 93 tries scored in the process.

That appearance tally includes more than 160 games at Super League level as well as six on the international stage for Scotland, who he represented through his heritage.

The tally also includes 17 NRL appearances for Newcastle Knights having spent the 2017 campaign Down Under.

Oldham have already announced Irving as his replacement. He had been at the club in a role as their Pathways Technical Advisor, but will make the step up into the assistant position ahead of 2026, with the head coach role vacated by Long still to be filled.

Irving said: “I’m really excited and it is very humbling to be working with this club.

“What we had always talked about is joining the pathway up with the first team and now there is a really good opportunity to make sure there is a flow through right from the first-team to the under-12s.

“One of the things Mike (Ford, Director of Rugby) and the board have talked about is having Oldham lads playing for the first team and this role and joining those two elements of the club up is a logical step.

“This town has punched well above its weight in producing players over the years and we are still doing it.”

Newly-appointed Irving represented both hometown club Carlisle and York in his playing career as well a stint over in France. He has coaching experience with London Broncos academy and was at one time London Skolars’ head coach. Currently, Irving combines his role at Oldham with one on FIFA’s Coaching Education Programme.

He continued: “My remit will be to work with the first-team. I’m used to working with big characters and it is a pleasure to be around them. I am learning all the time and that is what I want to do here. I’m dead excited.”