GARY Fawcett has confirmed Cougars are open to the possibility of using dual registration in the forthcoming campaign.

Keighley went into a partnership with Castleford for a season in 2013 but have otherwise not used the controversial system.

The Cougars chairman accepts it might not be to some fans’ liking but he prefers it to using loan players.

Fawcett said: “Quite a few fans on-line have said they don’t like it but I’m not sure they fully understand it.

“Under dual-registration, clubs are not forced to play players and the agreement can work for both the player in question and the two clubs involved.

“We won’t discount it. I prefer dual registration over using loan players. No cash changes hands in dual reg, while it does with loans, though I understand you might get more continuity with the latter.

“We brought loans in towards the end of last season but the players we recruited just didn’t perform to the level we expected.”

Critics of dual reg claim it undermines the integrity of competition outside Super League and blocks the progress of homegrown talent.

Four of the five clubs who finished above Cougars in 2016 used dual reg and loan players throughout the season.

New head coach Craig Lingard is happy to adopt it and insisted it would not be to the detriment of the club.

The system is in place at his former club Batley, who Cougars could link up with in the new campaign.

Lingard has said he would only use dual-reg players should the club not have the cover available in a certain position.

He said: “We’ve had a conversation with Batley. They have a 30-man squad and a few players who they will want to get out on dual registration.

“We’re pretty much covered in the forwards unless we have a drastic injury crisis. With half-backs we are fine too. It’s just outside backs but if we use dual-reg it will not be the detriment of our club.”

At a fans forum, Lingard highlighted Castleford’s Greg Minikin as a positive example of the system working, Minikin being one of Batley’s key performers throughout last season.

Lingard added that using a dual-reg player would be less of a risk than using a reserve or youth-team player who is not ready for first-team rugby.

Having been assistant coach at Batley for several seasons, Lingard still has close ties with the club and Fawcett confirmed they could link up with the Championship outfit, who are partnered with Super League Castleford.

Fawcett said they have also considered Bradford Bulls and Halifax but the former has been embroiled in financial crisis since going into administration and the latter also announced it has made considerable cuts to their budget.

Fawcett added that Wakefield also had ‘synergy’ with Cougars, with Lingard’s old boss John Kear now head of rugby there, though the Wildcats already have a partnership in place with Championship outfit Dewsbury.

The dual-reg system created huge controversy in 2014 when Batley and Doncaster were initially deducted points for fielding ineligible players but that decision was overturned after it was discovered other similar breaches of the rules had gone unpunished.

That ultimately led to Cougars’ relegation from the Championship when they would have survived if the penalties had stood.