Former Salford Red Devils prop Jack Ormondroyd has spoken on his exit from the club and the motivations behind his move to Oldham, whilst also confirming Paul Rowley as one of the major motivations for why he stayed at the struggling Super League club so long.
Ormondroyd and club captain Ryan Brierley both left last week with their departures marking two of the toughest for Salford Red Devils fans given how senior the pair are.
The prop had played in all but one game, the first of the season when Salford fielded an academy side, but admitted that the pull of Oldham was too hard to turn down after months of turmoil with the Red Devils.
“When I came to meet Bill (Quinn) and Mike (Ford), the ambition that they had really stood out to me and was a major part of me coming here,” Ormondroyd explained when speaking on the Championship club’s YouTube channel.
He also cited Ryan Brierley’s move as a ‘contributing factor’ whilst noting the ‘upwards trajectory’ of Oldham, even commenting on their Super League ambitions.
Former Salford Red Devils prop opens up on exit
As for his time at Salford, Ormondroyd explained that he stayed so long on account of not wanting to let anyone down, notably the younger players but also Paul Rowley.
He explained: “I can’t speak for anyone else but personally, it was just a case that I didn’t want to let anyone down. I’m there to do a job and play the game and we had a lot of young lads playing with us so I didn’t want to let them down really.
“We had people pulling out sometimes and it’s not really me, it’s letting them (other players) down a little bit. I get people’s reasons for it but I think that was my motivation to play every week.
“It wasn’t really me to not play, I felt that I didn’t want to let people down and Rowls as well. That’s one of the reasons I played every week.”
Asked about Rowley’s future and if he could have a breaking point as so many players have had, the prop responded: “To be honest, I have no idea. I suppose if he was going to leave then he’d have left by now.”
Rowley recently explained that he holds some doubt on his future in reference to the fact that he was supposed to take an off-field role as the club’s director of rugby at the end of the season, however, current circumstances have thrown that into doubt.
Uncertainty was ultimately the breaking point for Ormondroyd as he explained: “I think the uncertainty comes from getting paid on time. That was late a couple of times which is obviously not great. We’re humans who aren’t any different from people working a normal job with bills and a mortgage to pay. That was the major worry.
“One of the worst sides of it was going into games knowing that you’re probably going to lose. You play rugby to compete and that’s why I enjoyed the weekend, to compete was nice.”
