Kear remains firmly on Cooke's trail

Wildcats coach Kear wants to sign the 28-year-old on loan for the rest of the season, offsetting the loss of drugs cheat Terry Newton.

There was no sign of the former Hull FC player in either squad as Wakefield beat Hull KR 31-18 on Friday night, but Kear is still hopeful that the move will go ahead.

"He's a player I admire greatly and there are still negotiations going on," Kear said. "I think that is common knowledge. We would love to have him.

"I think things can be worked out to Paul's advantage, Hull KR's advantage and Wakefield's but it isn't a done deal yet."

Ironically, it was the performance of Sam Obst, playing in Cooke's preferred position of stand-off, that swung the game in Wakefield's favour.

They trailed 18-6 at half-time and played the first 10 minutes of the second half with 12 men after Danny Brough was sin-binned, but Obst produced a stunning display to help them take the points and banish the memories of their 52-0 mauling by Huddersfield.

"The whole second half was a great response generally," Kear said. "We spoke at half-time about how we had to get through that period (without Brough) and they carried it out to the letter."

Hull KR chief Justin Morgan was in no mood to defend his players after their second home defeat of the season.

"It is very difficult to take," he said. "The last couple of weeks have shown we can play for 80 minutes but here we switched off.

"In the second half we didn't do anything that we intended on doing."