KEIGHLEY Cougars have brought two popular former players back to the club.

Prop Matty Bailey had spent a decade at Cougar Park and was a consistent performer down the years, appearing over 150 times for Keighley and winning multiple Player of the Year awards.

He left for the Midlands Hurricanes after Cougars gained promotion to the Championship for 2023, but following relegation back to League 1, Bailey has been brought back to BD21 by head coach Matt Foster.

A player returning after an even longer absence is centre Adam Ryder.

Cougars gave him his break in rugby league back in 2017 following a successful trial.

A prolific try scorer, he had crossed the whitewash 15 times in 16 appearances for Keighley in 2018, but the cash-strapped Cougars were forced to sell him to Dewsbury to help raise the funds to survive.

Ryder remained with the Rams until their relegation from the Championship last year, after which he signed for Hunslet.

But after only a year in South Leeds, he makes the move back to Cougars.

Meanwhile, Cougars seem to be making a habit of signing Australian players from Whitehaven.

Having snapped up half-back Alex Bishop from the Cumbrians earlier this month, Keighley have gone back to the LEL Arena in order to sign back rower Lachlan Lanskey.

After his arrival in West Yorkshire was confirmed, Lanskey said: “The club looks to be in safe hands.

“The squad that is being put together looks really good and is very capable of bouncing straight back into the Championship.”

Cougars have also been busy retaining players over the last few weeks, and Oscar Thomas has joined Junior Sa’u, Charlie Graham, Kyle Kesik, Dan Parker, Josh Lynam and Ben Stead in staying put from the side’s 2023 Championship squad.

The versatile back, formerly of Bradford Bulls, only joined the club back in July, but was not quite able to help drag the club to survival.