Great to be back watching the Dons, great crowd today, thought i heard the attendance wrong.

Good raps for the lads today despite the scoreline, thought they never stopped working and and there was some good performances. China, 11 and 17 i thought really worked hard. well done fellas







Even though it was good to play it would have been nice to have had a friendly against someone in our league before the Hull game., because then it would have given us a better reflection on the season ahead.

Well done the Dons

Summary for me was,

A great Idea in as much that commercially it must have been a good day for us, i do agree that playing someone else a bit nearer the level would also be good as an extra (Seagulls for S Yorks cup etc).

Fitness looked greatly improved and I thought the last 20 mins we looked decent and the forwards that were on at this point looked good.

Sanderson looked better at fullback and was actually bossing the team, 19 i thought had some great touches, whilst Sullivan might make to be a great signing...
China played well and Ely does show a bit of a rugby brain - also rated 17 and 11 in parts.

Would be hard to be critical as Ronnie penalised the game to death and taking nothing away from Hull we just seemed to be missing a really active half back and centre defence - that said I really think we can have a shot at the league this year.

Anything below 60 points today I had down as a result, and with 2 tries disallowed (Still not sure what for on the 2nd?) it was a spirited effort.

Only last point is, TM can we please please challenge the attack at the play the ball, the players just drop off which just gives the attacking team easy yards Ely and Steen being the only 2 who seem to buck this trend...

Can't wait for season, well done to all those involved today.

Thought your guys gave Hull a really good test perticularly in the second half their heads never went down and they kept the pressure on till final whistle! gave a good account of themselves today.

Enjoyed today, a good game spoiled by some of Ronnies strange decisions (nothing new there).

Thought attack got a little more direction once Ely came on in the first half.

Solid display from China, and some hope for the future I think from 11, 17 and I think Sanderson could be a real asset.

Watching full back display, still not sure why Tommy Hodgkinson was allowed to leave.

Anyway a big well done for the lads for keeping going when it could have been easy for them to let their heads go down.

1924 ( or something near that) I think the crowd was announced as, which I though was conservative ... but no matter.

It must be nice to have good traveling support like Hull.
Thanks to the Hull supporters for swelling our coffers.



That aside I am not sure what either side learned from this encounter.
Full marks to Hull for treating the game seriously and not taking their foot of the pedal, and full marks to Donny for trying for the entire 80+ (yes plus) minutes.

On a personal note, as a Donny supporter, I found it fairly pointless and unentertaining. What was in it for a Donny supporter apart from some dosh.

OK ... the lads got a run out and I was impressed with their fitness ... and also I was impressed by our play in the last 20 minutes. The score stopped at 56 when it could have been 80, that is a real credit to the lads and it's a shame we did not score a try late on (what was that all about?) and the upshot was that Gomersall limped off injured and they got a penalty.

Anyway, the next game is not going to tell us much either, even though it's a great idea.

I was going to leave at 56-0, I am glad I didn't.
Come on you Dons.

who is China,and why ?

Dean Colton

IIRC its a nickname given to him by his brother many years ago.

does he look like a chinaman ?

Please to see the team agian and a number of positives. agree it was a commercial success and we are greatful to Hull FC and their supporters for that, but a one sided training session for them. Their speed of handdling, off load and movement up to attack the play of the ball really showed the difference in class.

Only down side for me was our No. 3. he must have got arm ache from putting it up every time he missed a tackle or made a c*ck up. Nevertheless, we won't be playing teams of that calabre each week so it should auger well for 2011

Lee 'Now with added afro' Gomersall...

Yes ...... loving his hair.

Well done yesterday to the dons. There was some promising performances (china, 11 and 17) but i would say room for improvement from some players such as gomersall to name one. looking forward to seeing the few injured players come back as a couple of them usually prove influential. Think there is definately some positives to take into the start of the season.
COYD's!!

Only when he smiles (so the story goes).

just as a matter of interest,can anyone recall ever seeing a chinese or oriental RL player in the UK ?

obviously Ikram Butt still flies the flag for the asian players but I can't recall any chinese....

First of all I'd like to echo the sentiments re the travelling support. Good to see a large following from Hull. Financially, a good result for the Dons.

Reference the match / player performances / result ... I don't read too much into it in terms of the season ahead. It's fine for the players to test themselves against a cross section of SL players and youngsters being raised in a SL environment but the bread and butter stuff will be played against opposition of a different calibre indeed.

As a qualified Coach I'm sure that Tony will have picked up on some things which we did well enough considering the opposition and others that could still be done better but I am sure much more will be taken from the games to come against similar-ranking opposition.

The 11 and 17 who've been highlighted as showing up well are Kyle Sampson and Adam Scott and I would agree with those plus China and Jack Ely (who have also been mentioned).

On the subject of players (and I'm sure it will take time for us to get to know some of them) I'm struggling to work out who Sullivan is that Now then mentions and I'm pretty certain that my mate Trotsky is referring to Tommy Griffiths rather than Tommy Hodgkinson.

Wanderer i think Trotsky was just havin one of them moments. He will possibly tell you he meant Griffiths.

I am sure he will

And I meant Williams - must get my eyes tested.

Was 19 Spaven? as he looked decent

No problem.

Yes, 19 was Spaven ... should impress in our division.

Hussein M'Barki was a Moroccan winger who played rugby league in the 1980's, he played for Fulham,Warrington,Oldham & Hull FC he scored 74 tries during in his time at Fulham1981-84 & 1988-91.

Back in the dark days of the late 1970's the Dons had two Chinese players

Wewon Once
&
Howlong Since

a veritable mine of information mon ami and a comedian with it !

have you ever considered a career on the stage ?

I once asked Billy Thompson what made him decide to become a rugby league referee and the answer he gave was he used to go and watch his local team Huddersfield & after watching half a dozen or so games he said to himself do you know I've half a mind to become a referee.

Don't agree with the Butterfield / Griffiths debate. For me its simple, the better full back is playing for the club.
Its not as if Tommy has been snapped up by another club is it

Sorry Wanderer, it was late!

At least we saw that Tommy chap catch the ball, tackle a player and go past a man.

I m still waiting for the current fullback to do any of these!

I must be watching a different game