I KNOW all our fans will give a real Cougar welcome to our new Aussie import.

Brock McDonald is a real Australian sounding name, and at just 21-years-old he fits into our youth policy brilliantly.

He flew in from Perth on Tuesday and although that is a strong Aussie Rules area his father is from New Zealand and was determined to see him brought up in the rugby tradition - and he started playing when he was fairly young.

For quite a while he played both Aussie Rules and Rugby League, but in his mid-teens he was spotted by the developing Perth Reds club and progressed through their junior grades.

His mother is from Scotland which allows him to come over here without any work permit problems and he should be a real asset to the club.

He certainly must have been keen to get here, because he arrived at Manchester Airport at 7.30am and I didn't get to know he had even set off until 9am.

I dashed over to the airport to collect him, but the poor guy had been up for 36 hours with five hours sleep, and had then been hanging around Manchester Airport for over three hours.

But after a night's sleep he was ready for training and really threw himself into our programme.

DAY by day things are becoming more and more hectic down here at Cougar Park as we prepare for the season.

The directors and all the back room staff are really pulling out all the stops and we will be firing on all cylinders when the action starts.

Simon Irving is busy pulling the sponsorship deals together and his Cougar Business lunch is almost completely full.

We will be outlining our plans for the future of theclub - on and off the field - at the lunch and any business people who would like to attend should give Simon a call.

THE Cougar Line will be up an running with an interview with new investor Hami Patel.

He admits he is a shy guy, but Jack Wainwright has persuaded him to go before the microphone and you can hear what he has to say on 0891-567575.

OUR team this year will probably be the youngest ever put out by the Cougars, and one of the youngest in the history of rugby league.

The aim is to begin a development plan which will really give the Keighley club a big edge in the years to come.

The players all have room to develop futher, improving their footballing skills, and while other clubs are dropping their Alliance teams to save money they will be an important part of out strategy to produce a production line of talent.

A big way fans can help the club is to go out an buy your season tickets now.

Tickets can be pre-booked at the Cougar Shop in Cavendish Court.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.