Judd, a premiership winning forward with St Pat’s in 2008 and also a former Orange CYMS and Bathurst Panthers representative, will captain-coach the Tigers in their first top grade campaign since 2007.

“It is all locked in and ready to go, at this stage if all goes to plan it will probably be for two years, but maybe it could be 10 – who knows?” Judd said of his appointment.

“It was a tough decision to leave St Pat’s, it took me a fair while to work out what I was going to do because I’ve made a lot of friends there.

“I did the job as coach there for a while and, to be honest, felt like I was capable of doing better than I did, so that was part of the reason for wanting to give it a go with Oberon.”

In their most recent incarnations in Group 10’s top grade, Oberon have generally occupied the lower reaches of the ladder, emerging occasionally to spring an upset against a more fancied opponent.

However, Judd said that honourable losses are not going to be on the agenda for 2012.

“To be competitive isn’t what I want to see, I don’t want us to lose every game and come off and go ‘Well, at least we were competitive,’” he said.

“The goal overall is to make sure that first grade is viable again in Oberon. The culture of the town and the history of league in Oberon tells me the place still has what it takes to be a great rugby league town.

“For that to happen though we need to get results, and to me something around five wins would show that we can compete and would probably put us on the edge of the top five.”

Part of Judd’s role will naturally be to recruit quality players to the Tigers and given his role as a Country Rugby League employee, he shouldn’t be short of contacts across the region.

He says he has already secured the services of two fellow Group 10 representatives while the quality of junior footballers in Oberon is as good as ever.