Re: Hunslet vs Dons 15/03/15 : Sun Mar 15, 2015 9:16 pm  

I am so disappointed with today's 2nd half performance, we were looking comfortable after 30 minutes and only dumb execution meant we didn't extend our lead and put us in a dominant position , the other positive was Wilko , he caused them a lot of problems in the first half and was the best player on the pitch, I can understand why he faded in the 2nd half after a lengthy spell out.
The 2nd half was a shambles and showed a lot of deficiencies, I can't understand why Kesick only played the last 12 minutes and for 15 minutes we had no kyle or Mike emmett on the field after their performance last week against leigh when on together. Howarth again disappointed and gave away a silly penalty away which lead to them scoring to go 18-12 in front, although other players made some silly mistakes.
The question to ask is why we haven't invested more into the squad this year after last seasons success, the prize money alone would have been greater than previous budgets, and add on the money from the Eagles we surely should have a 500k budget, if not then where have these monies gone, or if not spent why not invest to continue the success and attract further support through the good publicity which will be in the faces of rovers fans.
I hope the club can answer the questions posed, whatever the answer I will accept and continue to support my club, just be good to understand the direction the club is going.

Re: Hunslet vs Dons 15/03/15 : Sun Mar 15, 2015 9:41 pm  

There wasn't any prize money the league position we finished in determind the amount you got paid by the rfl for next season 200k was the amount all of this was spent on contracts the bottom club got 150k and top about 500k it wasn't an extra 200k that's all the club got for this season

Re: Hunslet vs Dons 15/03/15 : Sun Mar 15, 2015 10:16 pm  

That's good to know, what about the monies the Eagles are paying to ground share, surely that must a sizeable sum or why agree to any deal, also if clubs who finished below us receive less how can they afford to sign players we supposedly cannot, if this is sponsors or benefactors then fair enough. Why would the board of the rovers elect to buy the Dons and not invest in the team to create greater revenue streams . I would imagine the income from our home games so far would equal one rovers game based upon average rovers attendance and assume an average spend on food and drink.

I cannot believe any board of directors of any business would agree to purchase another business and let it go to ruin due to underfunding, unless their due diligence wasn't carried out to ensure they understood what they were investing in.

Looking from the outside in it appears someone or some decision makers have made an error.

However I do believe this squad will improve especially now our first choice half back pairing are fit, and will only get better once they fell like last season. Pas and Mitch will also add other options once fit, and I believe we will stay up although wI'll be a rocky ride. I just feel the momentum of last season as been lost and could set the club back 2 years with increasing its fNbase through success on the pitch, we have a marketing team with a database of potential new supporters who know the stadium and enjoy sport.

Re: Hunslet vs Dons 15/03/15 : Sun Mar 15, 2015 10:27 pm  

It wouldn't surprise me if the extra money generated from the Eagles covers the losses made from dons home games . Maybe this is why they have been arranged on the same day .as playing on separate Sunday's would have ment they wouldn't make enough money to cover costs of a single game .any extra money I think wouldn't be much with the crowds both teams get . I think the benefit of the rovers owning the club iOS if we are struggling we could be given money to get us out of trouble as they have gone with the football in the past

Re: Hunslet vs Dons 15/03/15 : Sun Mar 15, 2015 10:58 pm  

I agree that the current ownership is very positive and gives us a greater chance to grow and a platform to build for the future which will allow us to break even or even be profitable.
What I cant understand is why buy the club hasnt made a budget available for the club to build upon last season and therefore generate greater revenue.
Something doesn't add up, if I were the CEO of club doncaster I would ensure funds were directed to areas of the business which had the potential to grow.

Re: Hunslet vs Dons 15/03/15 : Mon Mar 16, 2015 12:40 pm  

Without clarification from the club, it would appear they must have funds available to strengthen the squad but chose not to use them this season. Maybe the targets we were after were asking for too much and the club felt better opportunities would arise at a later date. Maybe surviving was the aim this season, with a push to recruit for next season? I don't know. I'm just speculating.

By the start of next season, PC would have a better idea as to how the signed youngsters would have developed thereby not needing to spend cash if our lads had developed into the players we had hoped and they could slot into the team.

We did over-achieve last season with some great team spirit. We won some matches that could have gone either way, and the Hull lads did help us out in these wins. The rest of the clubs in the league have spent cash and the standard is quite a lot higher than it was last season. Consequently, our decision not to invest now looks less of a good idea because we may not have a squad that is able to compete at this higher level, with relegation being a threat.

It'll be interesting to read John Scarrow's page in the next programme. Maybe he could give us some insights into how he feels we can deal with the situation we find ourselves in and explain whether they had a Plan B when formulating the current strategy, should we have a bad start to the season? Getting relegated would be terrible and we must avoid it, even if it does mean investing money now, instead of next year.

I want to remain positive, and I will stand by the club no matter what happens, but I did feel the Hunslet game could be a defining moment. To stay in this league, I had in mind that we would need to beat them in two of the three fixtures we play against them. Will we win the other two games?

I now view it as critical that we win our home games against Batley, Dewsbury, London, Hunslet, Workington and Whitehaven, otherwise it is very unlikely that we will accrue enough points to stay up. I'm sure we'll all feel better after our first league win. Let's hope it happens on 29th March against Batley.

[Wanderer]

Re: Hunslet vs Dons 15/03/15 : Tue Mar 17, 2015 6:31 pm  

rugblyman wrote:

I am so disappointed with today's 2nd half performance

Me too, in truth it was shambolic and whilst I do believe that PC thinks he can fix it, there is a hell of a lot to fix unfortunately.

I couldn't help thinking that last season we would have found a way to stick in that game and possibly even edge it but we seem unable to put two half-decent 40 minutes together at the moment.

We look low on ideas / creativity and even lower on either resilience or confidence.

[Wanderer]

Re: Hunslet vs Dons 15/03/15 : Mon Mar 23, 2015 12:18 pm  

Russ Spiers - Sin Bin sufficient ruling from the match review panel (same for the Hunslet player).