Coleman creating Cougars selection poser (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Jy-Mel Coleman creating Keighley Cougars selection poser

5:50pm Friday 3rd February 2012 in Sport By Ross Heppenstall

Jason Demetriou admits that scrum half Jy-mel Coleman has given him plenty to think about as the Cougars prepare to host Rochdale in their final pre-season friendly on Sunday (2pm).

Demetriou’s men beat a Bradford side made up largely of under-20s players at Cougar Park last Friday, overturning a 12-10 deficit after half-time to run out emphatic 28-12 winners.

Their second-half display – which saw new signings Richie Barnett (2) and Matt Parata get on the scoresheet along with Gavin Duffy, following first-half tries from Semi Tadulala and Danny Lawton – left Demetriou in quietly optimistic mood.

Coleman came off the bench and proved the catalyst for a much-improved performance, which has given Demetriou a selection dilemma in the halves ahead of the season-opener against Batley in the Northern Rail Cup on February 12.

Demetriou said: “Jy-mel is pushing, shall we say, our bigger-name signings and is very close at the moment.

“He’s going to give me some headaches for sure when it comes to the opening game of the season. We are stepping up every game so that’s important for us.

“This week against Rochdale we need to step up another level again but hopefully we can start the game like we did in the second half against Bradford.”

Demetriou, who admitted his recruitment is now complete, also reserved special praise for Parata after the former Junior Kiwi marked his debut with a try against the Bulls.

He said: “I was really happy with Matt against Bradford. He carried the ball well and ran good lines.

“He’d only been off the plane since the Sunday before but he showed enough good things in the Bulls game to suggest we can get some good things out of him.

“Is my squad complete? Absolutely. I’m really happy with the squad we’ve got now and I’m not looking at all to strengthen any further.”

Meanwhile, Demetriou revealed that injured Ben Sagar will not feature until the second half of the year.

He said: “Ben did his knee in the grand final last season and it’s turned out to be a cruciate. He’s just waiting to get in for an operation and he won’t be back until probably July time.

“But we have depth in our squad to cope with losing Ben and we’ll be looking for another improvement against Rochdale this week.”