THIS will come as a surprise to precisely nobody, but Keighley Cougars have had five of their players named in the League 1 Team of the Year

Cougars lost their first competitive game of 2022, a disappointing 22-6 defeat to Hunslet in the Challenge Cup in January

But a couple of decent performances followed in friendly defeats to Oldham and Swinton Lions, and Keighley had certainly got rid of any chinks in their armour by the time the league season got underway in March.

In a virtually unprecedented campaign, Cougars won all 20 of their league games, scoring a mammoth 989 points, and only conceding 194.

They won the league by eight points from their nearest challengers, Swinton.

In truth, when Rugby League World released their monthly magazine earlier this week, which contained their Teams of the Year, it was probably harder to decide which Keighley players would miss out, rather than who should be included.

In the end, five Cougars players made the cut, with try-scoring supremos Mo Agoro and Charlie Graham included on the wing and at centre respectively.

Keighley captain Jack Miller takes one of the spots in the halves, while Aaron Levy is handed a start at prop.

The final Cougars player to make the select 13 is Billy Gaylor, who is named at loose forward.

The team's head coach, Rhys Lovegrove, has been helping out as part of Jamaica's coaching staff at the ongoing Rugby League World Cup.

But with the Caribbean outfit now out of the competition, the Australian, along with former New Zealand international and Cougars centre Jake Webster, went along to watch the Kiwis in training earlier this week.

Lovegrove described the experience as "an educational process", as he and Webster observed a New Zealand side desperate to win the World Cup ahead of hot favourites Australia.

The Kiwis are in quarter-final action against Fiji in Hull on Saturday.

Eight days after that, on Sunday, November 13, Lovegrove, Webster and the rest of the Cougars players and staff, along with their local rivals Bradford Bulls, will find out their Championship fixtures for the 2023 season.