AUSSIE half-back Nathan Antonik flew into the UK yesterday -- and could be lining up on the Cougars' subs bench tonight.

Coach Lee Crooks hoped the ex-St George player will shake off his jet-lag in time for the home game against Swinton Lions.

Antonick, who can play at Stand-off, scrumhalf or hooker, left St George due to a lack of first team opportunities. He has already signed a contract with Keighley for 1999 and arrived early to make sure he qualified for a work permit next year.

The covetted permit arrived on Monday, leaving the way open for a him to make a debut appearance.

Crooks is hoping that Antonik, who made 18 first-grade appearances for the South Queensland Crushers in 1997 will make a big impact at Cougar Park.

"He is only a reserve grade player at St George, but he has been playing well and with players like Anthony Mundine at the club he is obviously going to find it hard to break in there.

"But Garen Casey was only a reserve grade player when he came to the UK and we can just hope that Nathan has the same impact on us that Casey has had on Wakefield."

Those who saw Casey's demolition of the Cougars on Sunday will be hoping that Antonik is an equally talented halfback.

Crooks is certain he will make a big difference: "He has come over here with the experience of 1st Grade rugby in Australia and obviously he is going to be beneficial.

"We have seen what the Australians can do to Great Britian at international level, and someone who has experienced that sort of competition can only be good for our game."

And after a 25-hour flight from Sydney Antonik was ready for action.

"I'm sure I'll be over the travel by Friday night and I'm raring to go."

After being given the chance to move to Keighley he met up with former Cougars Andy King and Steve Parsons.

"They gave me some good reports and I'm here to make an impression," he said.

n This week Cougars decided to scrap the club's A team in a bid to cut costs and concentrate resources on the 1st XIII.

"We won't be running an Alliance team from next season. Ideally I would have like to operate an under-21 team but we haven't the players at the moment. The aim is to have an Under-21 side up and running the following year with players who are capable of holding their own at 1st team level," Crooks said.

The move will save the club about £50,000 a year, but the senior squad will be reduced from 36 players to to about 23 next season.

n Plans to return to winter rugby for the First and Second Divisions are still up in the air.

Although the majority of clubs want a return to playing the game in winter the possibility of a television deal could mean pressure will be applied to continue playing alongside Super League in the summer.

However, a decision will have to be made soon to give clubs the chance to prepare for the next season -- whenever it may be.

n Cougars are in action against Swinton Lions tonight and expect to have an almost full strength squad in action.

The match kicks off at 7.30.

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