CHRIS THORMAN has admitted that big Adam Howard is nearer to a first-team berth for the start of the season than he had previously envisaged.

The 24-year-old prop, known as the Dreadlocked Destroyer due to his size and flamboyant hairstyle, was a raw recruit from the North Eastern amateur outfit Peterlee Pumas when he first arrived at York City Knights 12 months ago but showed enough on trial to warrant a longer stay.

He remains a “work in progress” but after a year at Huntington Stadium and a full pre-season under his belt, Thorman says his application, allied to his brute force and frightening frame, has lifted him up the pecking order ahead of the Northern Rail Cup opener at home to Swinton on February 12.

His displays in the friendlies, not least the win over Castleford XIII on Sunday, have also boosted his cause.

Asked how close Howard had come to a place in the 17, particularly with the strength in depth the club presently possess in the front row, the Knights’ player-coach said: “He’s a lot closer than I, and I think others at the club, expected him to be.

“His performances have been very good in pre-season, especially considering where he was last year. He wasn’t even a definite starter for the reserves last year but he’s much-improved, and he wants to improve as well. He’s a good lad.

“He offers us something else – he’s 20 stone, and he’s a handful for anyone. If we can get improvements in his core skills, anybody that big can have an effect. Get him in the wrestle room and you can’t budge him.

“He’s learning the game and the subtleties of the game, but his skills and techniques are much better.

“When I first saw him I wasn’t sure but I can’t question his work ethic. He’s probably jumped over a few people in being in contention.”

Thorman has previously expounded the need for athleticism in his players, saying he wants to have “a team of athletes” under his charge. Howard, with the build of a strongman more than a track star, does not necessarily fit that bill.

But the player-boss said: “I don’t want a team of robots or for them to be genetically modified to be the same. We would be pretty one-dimensional and boring if that was the case. Adam gives us something different.

“It’s like with (prop) Paul King. He probably doesn’t play the game exactly how I’d like it all the time but he offers us something else, some unpredictability, and if you took that away from him he’d become half the player he is. He can off-load the ball when most people wouldn’t even contemplate it.

“I want all my players to be as athletic as they can be but I’m not going to think I can change a 20-stone bloke like Adam into an 80-minute front-rower.

“I want him to be the best he can be, and he’s got to be happy with how he’s going, and we’re happy with him.”