Cornwall RLFC: Cornish players need to adapt to being professionals - Kelly

Cornwall are one of three sides to have lost their opening five games of the season in League One

Cornwall head coach Neil Kelly says his locally signed squad members need to adapt to being professional players.

Cornwall suffered the biggest loss of their maiden League One campaign on Sunday when they were beaten 50-0 at home by Rochdale Hornets.

The club have added loan players from sides such as Wigan, Leeds and Bradford Bulls to boost their squad.

"I'd be lying if I said I thought we'd thoroughly adopted being professional," Kelly told BBC Radio Cornwall.

"It's one thing having nice kit to wear and supplements for your diet and staying in a nice hotel when you go away from home and all those things, they're things that should be provided to professionals.

"But it doesn't make you professional. You've got to adopt a professional attitude, and I feel as though - and I'm probably directly speaking to the Cornish rugby union players that we've signed on - I'd be lying if I said they'd fully adopted being a professional.

"They've enjoyed that environment, but you've also got to adopt a professional environment and it's when you adopt it and you start thinking like a professional that you make those improvements within your game."

Former Widnes coach Neil Kelly has been in charge of the Cornwall side since it was founded

Cornwall have lost all five of their matches this season and are third-from-bottom of League One with London Skolars and West Wales Raiders below them on points difference.

And Kelly says he wants Cornwall to be able to produce players of their own rather than have to rely on clubs higher up the leagues for loan players.

"I think about every club in the country is now fearing my phone calls on a Monday or Tuesday," joked Kelly.

"Fortunately up to now we've had two lads from Wigan over the last few weeks, for Wigan to be associated with Cornwall, albeit just loaning players to Cornwall, it's a big confidence boost for the club and brilliant for Wigan to be named in the same sentence like it is for Leeds.

"We're looking after these kids so when they go back north they've nothing but good things to say about the team and hopefully it'll become a well-worn path.

"But we're not kidding ourselves that sooner or later we've got to have our own players.

"We're dual registered with Bradford and we've had several players from them, but sooner or later we've got to stand on our own two feet and see any loan players as being a short-term situation for a short-term need, not as a necessity as it is at the moment."