Cornwall RLFC boss Neil Kelly ready to win over any doubters of new club

Neil Kelly led Widnes to promotion to Super League in 2002

Cornwall RLFC head coach Neil Kelly says he is confident the club will win over any doubters as they prepare for their first season.

The Penryn-based club will join League One in 2022 after plans for a side in Ottowa in Canada were shelved following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"I'd be wrong to say everybody's behind it," Kelly told BBC Radio Cornwall.

"I think mainly the financial costs of the other clubs coming to Cornwall is the biggest reason for the complaints."

• Is Cornwall ready to embrace rugby league?

He added: "But where there's a will, there's a way, and I'm sure in time, when they see what we're trying to create in Cornwall, they'll all be converted."

The club have already signed two players - former Leeds prop Anthony Mullally and Cornwall-born winger Henry Symons - and have plans for open trials for prospective local players on 9 January.

Former Widnes boss Kelly, 56, will lead the first professional rugby league side in a county with a rugby union heritage.

But he says he is confident that both codes can exist side-by-side and even help each other to grow.

"I don't think we're going to be competing at the outset with rugby union," added Kelly, who has also coached Cornish Pirates' rivals Doncaster Knights in rugby union's Championship.

"We're fully respecting of the rugby union players, but because we're a summer sport mainly I can see areas where we can help each other. That's not just the players, but also the clubs.

"We're fully respecting of rugby union. That's why we're coming down there because there's such a great rugby tradition, but we're just trying to offer something different as well."