BRAD HEY'S much-improved form at the start of this season has prompted York City Knights to tie him down to a longer contract.

Hey has been playing in his preferred berth at second-row this year, having previously featured more often at centre since his arrival from Batley Bulldogs in July 2015.

His initial deal had been for this season only but he has now agreed a two-year extension taking him up to the end of 2019.

"We are very much focusing on this year but we are in the mindset of building a team for the future," explained head coach James Ford.

"Brad's showed considerable improvement from last year to now. His attitude has always been first class. We always knew there's a good player in him and he's starting to show that potential in his performances.

"There are areas he needs to develop but his approach and his athleticism will enable him to improve in those areas, and it's great the club are letting me tie people down who I think have got a good future in front of them."

Prior to this year, Hey had started 11 games for the Knights and made eight appearances off the bench, scoring four tries. After catching the eye in pre-season, he has started all three games this term, scoring twice in a Press man-of-the-match performance against Egremont in the Challenge Cup.

Ford is optimistic the 22-year-old is gaining confidence and consistency.

"Young players don't always perform to their potential - that's the nature of the beast - but we always believed Brad had that potential and we still believe he's got more than he's showing," he said.

"He's showed a tremendous attitude to take criticism in the past and thus far this season he's performed to a good level."

Meanwhile, Hey and co were to work on improving first contact and controlling the ruck this week in training - faults pinpointed by Ford after the 28-0 defeat at promotion hopefuls Barrow in Saturday's League One opener.

The head coach initially said his team did not do the basics of running or tackling hard enough, especially in a one-sided first half, but he reckoned video evidence suggested the game should have been closer, and argued there were positives to work on.

"We didn't control the ruck as well as we had planned and that has an impact on ruck speed and your numbering if you're on the back foot," he explained.

"The root cause of that is not winning the contact. If you do that right, a lot of things will improve on the back of it.

"In the first half we also put ourselves under pressure, but I saw a lot of guts and character from the boys and a willingness to hang on in there.

"The response in the second half was really positive and we were unlucky not to score.

"The game could have been a bit different. Three tries in the first half were incorrectly awarded - one from a kick was offside and there was a knock-on, there was a forward pass with another, and they should have been penalised for crossing for another.

"We could have gone in at 12-6 and put a bit of pressure on, and in the second half we earned the right to score points.

"We need to look at why we didn't do that but this is a young team and there's improvement in us.

"If we keep working hard, can we beat Barrow come the end of the season? Yes I think we can."