NEW York City Knights coach Mick Cook wants his players to adopt the right tactics at the right time rather than rigidly stick to a single strategy.

Cook will see his new charges in action for the first time on Bank Holiday Monday, January 3 in the friendly against his old club Leeds Rhinos at Bootham Crescent.

And while he wants to see entertaining, expansive rugby, the former Leeds Academy boss reckons a successful team needs to adapt to different situations.

"We want the players to react to situations and if situations arise where we need to play it's my belief we should play it," he explained.

"I'm still getting to know the players and we're still thrashing out ideas but we're getting there. When you get the players for training only three times a week it makes it a bit more difficult but we understand where we're all going. We're okay where we're at."

Cook is yet to decide his club captain for next season. Lee Jackson - an old Sheffield Eagles team-mate of the Knights chief back in the mid-1990s - had the armband last season but Cook said he would look at all the players in training and probably the forthcoming friendlies before choosing a skipper for 2005.

Cook has had to pull out of a Sheffield Eagles All Stars side which is due to take on Hoyland Vikings in Barnsley on Sunday, January 16 in a game that marks the Eagles' 20th anniversary.

The Eagles team that day is to reflect their two decades in the professional game, and they were hopeful it would feature the likes of old boys Cook, Daryl Powell, Mark Aston, Dale Laughton and former Knights coach Paul Broadbent.

However, the match clashes with the Knights' friendly against Doncaster at Huntington Stadium, so Cook is definitely out. Powell and Broadbent, both now on the Knights coaching staff, are also unlikely to turn out.

Updated: 09:14 Saturday, December 18, 2004