Fans Panel Meeting
Thursday 10th January 2019
Attendees: Carol Green, Mike Lindley, Carol Lindley, Gary Fox, Phil Scorah, Barry Brown, Scot Goddard, Carl Hall, Gavin Baldwin, Shaun Lockwood, Ray Green, Mark Hughesman, Jane Keightley, Chris Scorah
Apologies: Tracy Armstrong, David Stewart, Stewart Thompson, Jackie Green, Phil Buxton, Stewart Piper
Welcome
• CH approved the Minutes of the last meeting, thanked everybody for attending
• ML asked about progress on Dons for Life from a previous meeting; SL to look into and report back at the next meeting
Match Day Themes
• Every home game has a theme which is timed with events happening during the year eg Super Heroes Day is around the time of the next Avengers film.
• Themes include 3 Family Fun Days, Women in the Game, Junior Takeover and Summer BBQ
• The themed games are on the newsletter that all supporters are receiving this week and on the website/social media to give people time to plan in advance
Match Day programme
• It was agreed that the current programme is outdated as all the information is online and it loses large sums of money over the season. The new format was discussed which is an A4 sheet including the squad list of both teams and a summary from Richard Horne and will cost 50p
• The RFL announced at a meeting in December that there is no requirement for clubs to produce traditional programmes from next season and the panel agreed that although it is unfortunate that the programme is not continuing as it was part of the match day experience, times have changed and we need to move on
• The main thing supporters are interested in is who is actually playing so the team will be announced by the PA Co-ordinator and be displayed on the big screen as usual; team sheets will no longer be produced
Mascot
• The lion outfit has been ordered by the Yorkshire Wildlife Park and we plan to launch it at the first home game
Questions from Carol Green on behalf of supporters
• Carol asked for questions from supporters on Facebook and Twitter but no one sent any. Carol will register on the forum and will be the point of contact going forward
Questions from the forum
ML: At the last meeting we were told there were 2 to 3 signings likely and those players had been playing Super League last season. Are we any further forward with those?
• CH advised that we lost them both – one to Leigh and one to Halifax
ML: Are we still intending to sign 2 Hull players on season long loans? If so, can they be named?
• As part of the meeting, Carl Hall confirmed that this season, the club had negotiated and paid for an enhanced agreement with Hull for D/R and loan players
The agreement will guarantee that should any players on loan or D/R get injured or be recalled to Hull’s first team, then Hull will ensure the Dons receive a replacement player of similar ability if required by Richard Horne.
The club confirmed a special “in the dugout” with Carl Hall will go out before the season starts
ML: There are presently 18 players in our squad. Without relying on Hull to plug the gaps, we seem light on numbers. How do Carl and Richard feel about this?
• We have signed more players than at this stage last year and the squad is looking stronger, we are hoping to have about 20/21 of our own squad before the season starts. RH has always stated it’s all about performance for him, if you perform you keep your shirt, he now knows all the players strengths so will keep putting out teams who have the best chance of winning games.
ML: As we're trying to improve the game day experience for fans, this was not helped by three of our four trialists not having shirt numbers listed on the scoreboard last Sunday. Had Ryan Dixon not won Man Of The Match, I wouldn't have known who number 30 was.
• All squad players have allocated numbered shirts but those trialling get allocated their shirts on match day. The PA Co-ordinator announces all the players and will inform supporters of the try scorers immediately afterwards at home league games as we are having someone to operate the scoreboard so Rob can be pitch side making more regular announcements
ML: Quite a lot of Dons fans were turning up at the turnstiles believing they could pay at the gate. It would have been helpful if the communications sent out by the club had made it clear that it was an all ticket game. Can we make sure this is made clear for the Leeds and London games?
• We haven’t had cash turnstiles for over a year and away teams are advised in their correspondence when receiving tickets. We will ensure that it goes out in future Comms that tickets can be purchased from the Box Office up until Kick Off
Stand Offish: My question is 'why is the half time draw not related to the number of tickets sold?’ It is a measly £50 when it used to be £100. Now I can understand why it may have dropped in the hard times, but we had 1170 people on Sunday.
• The amount we give as prize money is directly related to tickets sold and it doesn’t always follow that because the crowd is larger the supporters have bought half time draw tickets as Hull were selling their Fanzine on Sunday which affected draw ticket sales
• SG requested that the winning number be put on Twitter and on the big screen so supporters have more opportunity to see if they have won
Returning Don: What makes the coach and staff believe that relying on DR again this season will work when it didn’t last season. We have 18 players, some who are out injured, no signings in nearly 3 months. Can they understand why fans are concerned and if so what are they going to do to address this?
See response to question two
Keith Lard’s Dog: I know we had players missing on Sunday but we were totally out classed by what is effectively Hulls kids with a few old heads thrown in.
With a paper thin squad of players and with two or three long term injuries already sustained (don't know how true this is but rumour in the bar after the game) RH must be happy that we are going to sign a number of Hull players on loan and have the pick of dual reg when we need them to paper over the cracks.
All the players we had from Hull last season played their part but it’s no good getting players like Litten and Miloudi when you’re playing West Wales and no-one when you’re away at Workington in a promotion decider with three or four of your squad injured.
This is all well and good but we need assurances that we are not going to be hung out to dry like we were last season.
See response to question two
Any Other Business
• MH to circulate a summary of the new RFL rules by e-mail
• CH requested that supporters are aware via social media that tickets for the Newcastle game can be bought from our Box Office
The meeting closed at 7.30pm
Date of next meeting
The next meeting will be on Thursday 11th April at 6.00pm in Alick’s Bar
The critical aspect of the minutes is:
As part of the meeting, Carl Hall confirmed that this season, the club had negotiated and paid for an enhanced agreement with Hull for D/R and loan players
The agreement will guarantee that should any players on loan or D/R get injured or be recalled to Hull’s first team, then Hull will ensure the Dons receive a replacement player of similar ability if required by Richard HorneMy view is:
The weaknesses of DR/Loans in the past is that we have not been able to rely on it, and Hull have not provided players when we needed them most. This should not happen in the future with the enhanced agreement; an agreement that comes with a price tag.
No names were mentioned as to which players may be coming on DR/Loan but it's important to note that in order for players to be 'qualified' for the play-offs they need to play at least five league games. My preferred choice would be to have as many Hull players qualified for the play-offs as possible to give us the broadest amount of cover possible when we're likely to need it most.
The club is also looking to add to our own squad of players (as mentioned in the minutes) to boost our numbers further.
The quality of players within the Hull squad was shown by their performance in the game against us. As we can have up to five Hull players in our match day squad, the 'quality' that comes from Hull should greatly enhance our chances this season.
