Re: Toulouse vDoncaster Sat 4th june 6.30 : Mon Jun 06, 2016 5:57 am  

Surely that would inspire Donny even moe to get maximum points from their remaining games ? They have the ability from what I saw on saturday They need to reduce the errors and tighten up a bit that's all.

Re: Toulouse vDoncaster Sat 4th june 6.30 : Mon Jun 06, 2016 7:03 am  

sanjunien wrote:

Surely that would inspire Donny even moe to get maximum points from their remaining games ? They have the ability from what I saw on saturday They need to reduce the errors and tighten up a bit that's all.

The positive aspects for the Dons at the moment is that with Jorden Howden and Jason Tali in the team there is some evidence that we're improving as the season has gone on. The downside is that we're very aware of our defensive weaknesses and haven't got a lot of confidence we can contain the better sides in the league.

With York beating Rochdale, it makes it harder for us to finish in the top four in this first round of matches. A Rochdale win would probably have been better for us. Three wins out of our last four games should be enough to get in the top four although Barrow and Keighley could be breathing down our necks. We certainly can't afford to come unstuck away at Skolars.

In reality, this league structure means that it is all about peaking at the right time, and having everyone fit and playing at their best come the end of the season. This needs to be our aim. Promotion isn't beyond us but most of us probably aren't confident we are good enough to beat the better teams, if the better teams play to their potential.

Re: Toulouse vDoncaster Sat 4th june 6.30 : Mon Jun 06, 2016 8:03 am  

Donny are the best team i've seen at Toulouse this season and that includes the cup game against Leigh. You looked good going forward with a quick line-speed which shocked the French I believe, forcing them to be unsettled. Yep, maybe better discipline and a bit more quality in defence is the answer but I don't honestly think you are far away from being a promotion side, but I can only go by the one performance. You obviously need to keep hold of the players and suffer the minimum of injuries like any other team. Toulouse have a smallish squad in comparison and injuries and suspensions have taken their toll but they have survived through team spirit and hard work. It's not always rocket science.

Re: Toulouse vDoncaster Sat 4th june 6.30 : Mon Jun 06, 2016 11:05 am  

It's never rocket science.
Toulouse are top of the table for obvious reasons, which are that on average they are fitter and better with better systems of play.
Better systems of play is the route for improvement for Donny in the short term.

Thornton has to take an analytical approach to this, it is NO GOOD taking a move on approach to rugby.
The evidence is all there, why ignore it?

The analysis of tries conceded for instance should include the entire how, where, why, players involved, frequencies .... the lot!!!
Then, you have a better idea of where your strengths and weaknesses lie and you can try to improve.
You can't just play a player who is shipping two or three tries a game and hope for providence, you have to DO something to help him.
Moving players around can often sort things .

Let's take a case in point Foggin-Johnston .....

I like the guy, BUT, if he ain't scoring tries he shouldn't be in the side, because he is rolled over too easily.
So try him in the halves or fullback or bulk him up pronto.
The same notion applies to others as well who can all be developed or dropped.

I could never be a coach who would say trite things like ...'it was a bad day at the office, let's forget it and move on'.
Learn from mistakes and get better.

Re: Toulouse vDoncaster Sat 4th june 6.30 : Mon Jun 06, 2016 11:10 am  

trouble is if we start playing well and start picking up point . some posters on here would be saying whats the catch,something will go wrong,our bubble will burst.nature of the beast on here im afraid.im surprised we have,nt seen any public wrist slashing before now.played 10,won 7,lost 3.can only mean the end of the world is nigh.go on now lambast me for being an optimist.COYD.

Re: Toulouse vDoncaster Sat 4th june 6.30 : Mon Jun 06, 2016 11:20 am  

Difficult to disagree with any of that SO but to contemplate dropping Foggin-J for example isn't positive. He had a cracking game against some decent players but I think the coach should give him licence to be more adaptable to get into the game more instead of hugging the touchline for 80 minutes (ok, so I exaggerate but you get the idea ?). He does need to bulk up like so many (Kriouache a few years back at Toulouse and Pelissier at Cats for example) and that needs the coaching staff to sort this out. You can't make a silk purse out of a pigs ear but a good coach will get more from his squad. I've no idea if GT is the answer but I feel he should have at least another season to try to get more from his squad and strengthen where possible. Makali did ok saturday but youth has to be allowed to come through..

Re: Toulouse vDoncaster Sat 4th june 6.30 : Mon Jun 06, 2016 3:11 pm  

sanjunien wrote:

Difficult to disagree with any of that SO but to contemplate dropping Foggin-J for example isn't positive. He had a cracking game against some decent players but I think the coach should give him licence to be more adaptable to get into the game more instead of hugging the touchline for 80 minutes (ok, so I exaggerate but you get the idea ?). He does need to bulk up like so many (Kriouache a few years back at Toulouse and Pelissier at Cats for example) and that needs the coaching staff to sort this out. You can't make a silk purse out of a pigs ear but a good coach will get more from his squad. I've no idea if GT is the answer but I feel he should have at least another season to try to get more from his squad and strengthen where possible. Makali did ok saturday but youth has to be allowed to come through..

Can't fault that.

Re: Toulouse vDoncaster Sat 4th june 6.30 : Mon Jun 06, 2016 3:21 pm  

askernlad wrote:

:SHOOT: trouble is if we start playing well and start picking up point . some posters on here would be saying whats the catch,something will go wrong,our bubble will burst.nature of the beast on here im afraid.im surprised we have,nt seen any public wrist slashing before now.played 10,won 7,lost 3.can only mean the end of the world is nigh.go on now lambast me for being an optimist.COYD.

I don't think we would to be honest.
We are being promised Superleague level football unless I am missing something.
You are right that we should wait and see if we do well in the playoffs, but you have got to compare us to Toulouse, Rochdale,
York, Keighley and Barrow.
We have beaten two of them, which is OK.
We are OK ... that's it so far.
Won 7 lost 3 us not very clever in this league though.

Re: Toulouse vDoncaster Sat 4th june 6.30 : Mon Jun 06, 2016 10:29 pm  

It's all right saying that the moaners will say the bubble will burst, it'll all go wrong.
It already has, we are playing in the third tier and not looking good for promotion from that, despite being told that super league was the aim and that we had the best playing budget we'd ever had and to wait for the big name signings the season before, can you really blame fans for not buying into the dream anymore when certain people need to wake up and smell the coffee

Re: Toulouse vDoncaster Sat 4th june 6.30 : Tue Jun 07, 2016 9:46 am  

I don't class myself as an eternal optimist, neither do I consider myself to be a grim pessimist. I like to think of myself as a realist.

If the club's aim is to get into Super League, we don't want to be hanging around in this division. We needed to put a squad together that was good enough to get promoted this season. The longer we stay in this division, the more the core Dons' fanbase will disappear. People lose confidence in the club and find different things to do on match days. It's hard to win them back.

On the other hand, teams in this league won't rollover and let you win. They want to progress and better themselves too. I believe the club and coaching staff are working hard to achieve the best they can with what we've got. I think the fundamental problem is that we've not got enough quality and class within the squad to make us believe we have more chance of going up than not. With our defensive frailties, I consider we're certainly underdogs to go up. I would have hoped by this time in the season, I'd be thinking we'd be unlucky not to go up, rather than thinking we'll be lucky to go up.

We're still in there with a chance and we've got to do everything we can to make sure we're at our best for the important games to come.

For me, the biggest single issue is that we seem to have made the same mistakes this season as we did last season. We've under-estimated the strength of the opposition. The thing that worries me if we don't go up is that our better players will leave due to getting better offers elsewhere, and we'll be left to start all over again.

As fans, I think the only positive contribution we can make is to get behind the players and encourage them to do their best and hope things go our way through to the end of the season.