COUGARS star Paul Handforth admits he might be tempted to play on for another season in 2017 following his rich run of form.

The veteran playmaker will make a decision on whether to hang up his boots at the end of the season, with his current performances suggesting he has plenty left to give.

Handforth inspired his team to victory in the iPro Sport Cup final victory over York City Knights and was comfortably the outstanding performer again in last Saturday’s 36-14 win over Newcastle Thunder.

The 34-year-old scored a superb hat-trick against Thunder and said: “I’ll be honest, I played against Newcastle on Saturday full of painkillers because I was in a pretty bad way after the cup final in Blackpool.

“I must have done more defending than I usually do, but I managed to get out on the field and will be sore until the end of the week.

“But I’m still loving playing with a great bunch of lads, so you never know.

“I’ll see how the body is at the end of the year, which is when I will make my decision. We’ll see at the end of the season and go from there.”

Handforth, who inherited the sobriquet 'Tiger' from his illustrious father Tony, has enjoyed a fine career at clubs such as Wakefield, Castleford, Featherstone, Batley and Halifax.

“My dad has always supported me and him and my wife very rarely miss any of my games,” said Handforth.

“He’s been there since I was 15 and is definitely an inspiration to me.”

Ahead of Sunday’s trip to North Wales Crusaders, Handforth admits an improvement is required from Cougars.

He said: “We had a few words at half-time against Newcastle last week, harsh words, and I think we completed at 90 per cent after the break.

“When you do that, you’re going to cause teams trouble. We had a purple patch and we were clinical with the chances we had.

“It’s a competitive league with a lot of good sides and if you don’t turn up you will get beat, as we showed when we lost to London Skolars recently.

“We’ve got two tough away games now against North Wales and Toulouse, so we’ve just got to keep building and perform every week.”