DANNY Kirmond is excited to watch the York Knights’ crop of young players continue to develop at the club.

The 37-year-old forward, who is reaching the twilight of a career that has seen him turn out for the Betfred Super League’s Huddersfield Giants and Wakefield Trinity, has taken on the role of player/coach at the Knights this season.

Head coach Andrew Henderson has spoken openly about his wishes to provide opportunities to York’s younger players this season, with injuries and suspensions seeing him field five York-raised players under the age of 20 - AJ Towse, Myles Harrison, Ben Barnard, Brad Ward and Harry Price - at promotion favourites Toulouse Olympique in their Betfred Championship clash last month.

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And Kirmond is relishing his role in helping to nurture the next generation of talent at the club, admitting that it helps to keep him young.

“I think that I’m older than some of their dads!” he laughed.

“I can remember when I played with my first teammate that was born in the year 2000, and I think they’re about 2005 now, some of them probably a bit more!

“It’s really good to be honest, it keeps you young.

“I see the journey that they’re starting on and that excites me because I remember what I felt like when I was doing that.

“There’s a long journey ahead of them to be a professional rugby league player, and they’ve all got that opportunity to do that for a very long time.”

While Towse and Harrison, who crossed for the Knights’ opening try in their 28-14 victory at home to struggling Barrow Raiders on Sunday, have been regulars in the starting line-up, Toulouse provided Barnard and Price with their first start and appearance for the club respectively.

READ MORE: Heworth boss pleased to see quartet of club's juniors feature for Knights

Kirmond is enjoying imparting his wisdom on the young quintet, and has been pleased by their commitment and work ethic.

“I just try to give them help along the way, a little bit of advice here and there,” he explained.

“And obviously as my coaching career steps up, I’ll be working more and more with them as well.

“That’s something that I’m excited about doing.

“There’s some really good kids in this squad. Obviously you’ve got Myles [Harrison] and AJ [Towse] that have played a lot of games already, Barney [Ben Barnard], Harry Price.

“They work really hard in training, and that’s the main thing. If you can get that work ethic about somebody, then they’re the right kind of people to be working with, and that excites me.”