Challenge Cup just the tonic for Keighley Cougars says Mick O’Neill

Only three of the ten clubs from the third tier are scheduled to play in the first round on the weekend of March 21.

In light of Covid, the RFL made entry optional this year and, though the majority of clubs still wanted to be involved, they were told that a preliminary round around March 14 would then need to be played.

In the end, that was scrapped and it meant just three clubs were chosen – Barrow and West Wales Raiders being the others.

“We want to be involved,” said O’Neill, with his club having not played any games since last March due to the pandemic.

“We don’t want them going stale. We’ve got some good signings but we’ve never seen them play.

“They need to gel and the Challenge Cup is a very convenient time for us.

“We applied for it and got it which I’m grateful for.”

O’Neill was the Keighley chairman at the height of Cougarmaina in the 90s and returned as part of a consortium to help start rebuilding the ailing club in 2019.

He was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List for services to rugby league and the community - and to charity during the pandemic.

He said: “That’s really for the club. It’s terrific.

“The club’s been in the doldrums since the 90s but this award is putting us back on the right track and showing that we are genuine people.

“We’ve just applied for some funding to get a new stand which will be great and we’ve just been told by the RFL and Bradford Council that we can restart training this week.”

“We’ve got a couple of friendlies hopefully coming up in March, with one being against Bradford at Dewsbury and we’re also hoping to play York City Knights but that’s yet to be confirmed.”

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