Re: As we bow out : Sun Aug 09, 2015 1:49 pm  

Stand-Offish wrote:

Demonstrated that you're dyslexic, or the n ain't working on your keypad?

Correct my n butto is missi g

[Wanderer]

Re: As we bow out : Mon Aug 10, 2015 11:30 am  

donny hkr wrote:

Seems to be a recurring theme people saying they are not going anymore, it's a great shame it's come this, the club needs all the support it can get. But everyone has the right to make up their own mind, it's up to the club to, hopefully, entice people back.

It is (recurring theme), I've had a few people say to me they definitely won't be there next season and one or two have said it will depend on the calibre of the players at the Club at the start of next season.

Re: As we bow out : Mon Aug 10, 2015 1:50 pm  

I think the dream is over ....

We were moving in the right direction with Paul Cooke. He was a great player and great organiser, and when we lost his interest and commitment and then didn't think big for his replacement we were shafted and the game was up.

Why shouldn't Donny be a superleague club, why should a place like Wigan or Castleford have a Superleague club.
I can see big places like Leeds, Bradford, Hull etc having a top club, but how big is St Hellens?

So although unlikely, a place the size of Donny could support it.

But there is no way we are getting there now ...it's rewind to ten years ago.

The big difference being that we are not in administration anymore.

That is a positive at least.

Can see only mediocrity for the foreseeable future.

Re: As we bow out : Mon Aug 10, 2015 3:17 pm  

Stand-Offish wrote:

I think the dream is over ....

We were moving in the right direction with Paul Cooke. He was a great player and great organiser, and when we lost his interest and commitment and then didn't think big for his replacement we were shafted and the game was up.

Why shouldn't Donny be a superleague club, why should a place like Wigan or Castleford have a Superleague club.
I can see big places like Leeds, Bradford, Hull etc having a top club, but how big is St Hellens?

So although unlikely, a place the size of Donny could support it.

But there is no way we are getting there now ...it's rewind to ten years ago.

The big difference being that we are not in administration anymore.

That is a positive at least.

Can see only mediocrity for the foreseeable future.

S/O makes some really good points. A town the size of Doncaster ought to be able to support a Super League team but for various reasons we've never been able to capture the hearts and minds of the Doncaster people. This is something the club needs to investigate and get to the bottom of. I doubt this is the top of their list of priorities at the moment but it does need looking into.

The good news, compared to days gone by, is that we're not fearing the club will close on the back of what has happened this season.

Everything looked to be progressing in the right direction on the field with PC doing a really good job for us up to the end of last season. Now we feel as though we're back in the dark ages again. It's difficult for any of us to feel upbeat and optimistic about next season as things stand at the moment.

I partially share S/Os view that appointing Gary Thornton was a sign of the club not thinking big. Whether they're thinking big will be more clearly established by the calibre of players we bring in for next season. If an ex-Super League coach had been signed up, it would have signalled a positive intent (which I think S/O was hoping for, and so was I, to be honest). An ex-Super League coach wouldn't have come had he not been guaranteed a substantial budget. I suppose our worry is that Gary Thornton may not be given the same budget that a top flight coach would have demanded.

Consequently, we're probably all worried that things could be attempted to be done on the cheap again.

Re: As we bow out : Wed Aug 12, 2015 6:29 pm  

hiya peeps,,, good news Ive just looked at the championship shield table and we are up to 8th place, how good is that,,,,oh no just realised we are still rock bottom , oh well it was good while it lasted lol.I see we still have 2 points and the league points are carried over,, thawt.. we all started on zero. Is it just me or does everyone think its total bollox ?. or is it cos were not involved. anyway really sorry to hear about clark breaking his arm I think the lad has a lot going for him and when he moves on to a "proper club" we will see a far better player. He has been our best player by far since he joined good luck to him. Im reading all the posts about the crowds next year (if you read my previous post you will know what I think) in a nutshell, next year = poor crowds until we put some wins together and maybe a few good signings will bring a few stragglers back. Cant see anyway round it we have to build a strong team and create interest. Finally looking forward to the game on sunday, to have a crack with the dons faithful not bothered about the result lets just have a good day out, COYDs.

Re: As we bow out : Thu Aug 13, 2015 8:14 am  

They could always boo Paul Cooke if they get too bored and there's nowt to sing about ...

Re: As we bow out : Wed Aug 19, 2015 2:26 pm  

Not only is the dream over, but we found ourselves in a nightmare. We woke up to find ourselves relegated to League 1. What happened?

Doncaster must have one of the best stadiums in the Championship and the players now use the superb Rovers training facilities. Our ground and facilities rival that of some of the top superleague clubs.

We were fourth in the league last year and sixth the year before. Only Doncaster beat Leigh in 2014. We had a good squad and many of these players were retained in 2015. So we had a good solid core of top Championship players, but when we started the season it turned out that we had a bad team. We stumbled on this truth in January after the Hunslet Hawks friendly, but we chose ignorance and denial and continued on regardless.

In ex-superleague player Paul Cooke, we believed we had a coach who gave club Doncaster those important ingredients – credibility and self belief. What happened?

With the beginning of the 2015 season, the fans and players had great expectations.

We had the dream, the stadium, the players and the coach. Our dream stop should have been ‘Destination Superleague’.

I sincerely hope that in 2016, Doncaster is wiser from the harshness of its 2015 lessons. The fans need a new dream. COYD.

Re: As we bow out : Thu Aug 20, 2015 6:47 pm  

There's more chance of gary glitter becoming a nursery school teacher than us becoming a super league side!

Re: As we bow out : Fri Aug 21, 2015 10:34 am  

Last year we finished fourth – Leigh 76, Featherstone 61 Halifax 58 and Doncaster 57.

Some of the refereeing decisions were poor – Featherstone's try when the ball was dropped over the line, Dewsbury illegal shoulder charge on Doncaster player without the ball, Whitehaven try when player ran on touch line – to point out a few. Here, the point being that with correct refereeing decisions on important issues, a few more points to us and a few less to the opposition, would have seen us higher than fourth.

Had our performance this year mirrored last year, Doncaster would be playing against the four bottom superleague clubs now. Like Bradford and Leigh this year, our chances of winning any of these games would be slim.

However, by grasping and holding a bold vision of the future, Doncaster could have moved forward. Our players would become fitter, additional experienced coaching staff would spend time to sharpen up the players, attacking structures and defensive structures improved.

Existing commercial activities could be enhanced and new commercial activities developed to complement the vision.

In short, we would be more competitive and more victorious in the Championship. In turn, year by year, Doncaster would increase its threat to the bottom superleague clubs. Eventually, one of these clubs would succumb.

Given the reality of last year, was this such an impossible dream?

Re: As we bow out : Fri Aug 21, 2015 12:29 pm  

The problem, which the club haven't completely admitted to, is that they under-estimated the improvements the other clubs in the league would make. This meant that all other things being equal, finishing 4th this season was going to be a much harder challenge this time around than last. Most fans seemed to be aware of this but the club obviously didn't see it.

Because of our lack of ambition on the winter signings front, we dropped further down the pecking by a considerable margin. Help from Hull has been in shorter supply this season. Team spirit hasn't been the same as last year with something seemingly going wrong behind the scenes that didn't allow Paul Cooke to get the best out of the players this year. We haven't had a settled half-back pairing due to PC retiring and Richard Wilkinson being injured.

Put all these things (mistakes if you like) together and we've become the team we are now.

The reality was that we punched above our weight last season and we've got nowhere near those dizzy heights this season.

To answer Tee Man's question: "In turn, year by year, Doncaster would increase its threat to the bottom superleague clubs. Eventually, one of these clubs would succumb.

Given the reality of last year, was this such an impossible dream?"

I think we were a very long way off challenging any Super League teams last season. Look at how the Championship sides are struggling against the Super League teams this season. There was a glimmer of hope that we could possibly kick on from last season and takes some more steps in the right direction but we didn't.

To have any hope of getting into Super League, teams in the Championship must be:

1) Full-time
2) Have an academy and second team
3) Have a supporter base that will fund a side able to compete with the lesser Super League teams
4) Have sufficient financial backing from the owners.

At the moment, we don't tick any of those boxes (although I'd like to be proven wrong on the last point), and didn't tick any of them last season.

The challenge now isn't just to build a side that can win Championship 1, it's to build a side capable of staying up once promoted. Finances almost certainly mean that we can't look any further forward than that. Any thoughts of Super League are an impossible dream at the moment and will remain so until the above four points are met ... and we're in the Championship, not Championship 1!

Our demise has been sad to see. Many people connected with the club worked hard to move us forward in recent times. All that hard work has been undone due to the mistakes made, and it's back to the drawing board again.