Huddersfield Giants head coach Rick Stone has hinted that a long-term tie-up with Workington is a possibility after Town’s narrow 16-14 pre-season friendly defeat in West Yorkshire last weekend.

The Super League club boss watched Dave Clark’s remoulded League One hopefuls, including seven local trialists, push their hosts all the way - leading until five minutes from the end - before stating their impressive performance was no shock.

Stone, who coached Newcastle Knights in Australia’s ‘blue riband’ NRL competition as well as the Fijian national team before coming to England last summer, stressed: "They didn’t surprise me at all.

“Me and Dave have been good mates for a long time - I coached him for the first time back in 1994 at the Burleigh Bears.

“I went up to Barrow (Clark’s hometown) a fortnight ago and we had a bit of a chat about the game and what style of team I should put out - we wanted to make it competitive game, which is reflected by the score.

“We have a game at Warrington tonight, so it gave me a chance to give my fringe players some game time.

“The main thing Workington’s young blokes are going to find about the senior game is the physicality but I’m sure their squad is going to compete pretty well in the League One competition and they can only improve.

“It wasn’t a classic game because the conditions were fairly tough but you have to play in all conditions and the game certainly served a purpose."

It was the long-standing friendship between the two that triggered the unlikely pre-season clash between the Giants, who as recently as 2013 topped the Super League table, and third tier Town.

And Stone indicated to Clark he was keen to help in any way he could.

“Dave was talking about players and how he could obtain them and I said I’d like to help in a few areas and why didn’t he come down and have a game," said Stone.

“We talked about going up to Cumbria but that wasn’t possible, so we invited them down here to Yorkshire and split a couple of costs and it worked out alright and I’m sure they benefited plenty out of it and will go forward.

“We have spoken about it, although nothing formal so far.

"It’s something we can look at and could happen as early as this year.”