A good game to play at this point in the season. Then we've got Sheffield at home the weekend after.

The top team from each of seven groups of three qualifies for the quarter finals alongside the best performing second placed team.

The quarter finals will be played on 3rd March.

The semi-finals are on 12th May.

The final is at Wembley on 8th June.

I've not seen any official confirmation on how the best second-placed team will be decided but I presume most second-placed teams will have won one game and lost one game. I would expect the team with the best points difference from the seven groups will be the one that qualifies.

NOTE THIS IS A 2PM KICK OFF, NOT 3PM AS LISTED IN SOME PLACES

Hope you don't mind DM, I edited your post title to correct the kick off time.

Cheers, Jemmo. I must have been in one of those 'wrong places' when I saw the kick-off time. Thanks for correcting!

Just checked... I got it from the BBC website and they're showing 3pm. I'll let them know and see if we can get it changed to 2pm.

The problem seems to be, the RFL seemed to have it as 3 and places get the fixtures from their feed (our official website included)

The Dons site now says 2pm. I got in touch with the BBC last night but at 15.50 today, they're still showing 3pm.

Squad:

Boas
Briscoe
Ferres
Foster
Guzdek
Hall
Halliday
Hey
Holdstock
Johnston
Kenga
Knowles
Lovodua
Lyne
Matagi
McConnell
Pauli
Robinson
Smeaton
Sutcliffe
Tali

No Tyla Hepi in the squad again. Wonder if there's a problem.

Burns, Hall, Hepi and Misi are the players missing out, plus the 2 trialists

Disappointing tbh.

You'd think they'd at least give the trialists a go in what is effectively a glorified friendly. Also surprised to see so little change from last week. Would have liked to have seen more of the squad that didn't get a go last week have a run out if not injured. If they are injured where is the communication from the club ie timeframes till return etc. In this new IMG era I thought 'Fan Engagement' was supposed to be important. How are we expected to do well in that category if we do not communicate with the fans?

Depends how we want to tackle this competition, personally I want to see us get the best chance of progressing. The way the groups work we have a decent chance of the best second place coming from our group, and that requires the runner up to have 2 points and a big points difference. I;d be going all out to put a big score on them if possible

If on the other hand we use them as friendlies and accept we'll be knocked out then I would also play the fringe players, but we know we're not going to get specific injury details, and were sick of asking. We know Elliot and Hepi have had ops in the last few months so assume they're being as much time as possible. Misi; I can't imagine will play much this year, he will keep himself fit (cause that's who he is) and coach, making himself available when needed. The only one we don't know about is Burns.

I don't think trialists are eligible as it's a competitive game

We should be looking to put 80 on Midlands as that will give us a good chance of progressing should we not beat Sheffield next week. The big prize is a trip to Wembley - one we've not had any chance of doing since this comp began. Not wishing to get carried away but we could get near this season. If we did, it should create massive interest from the Donny public and could help push us forwards in a way we otherwise wouldn't.

If we qualify for the next round, we'd only need to win two more games to get to the final. We probably won't be favourites to do that but we're certainly not 'no hopers'.

The Dons website says the list is of a 22-man sqaud but there are only 21 names listed. I wonder if they've missed someone off or whether they can't count!

I think it's a typo cause the rules say 21 man squad.

In other number news, in a Yorkshire post interview Richard Horne said we had a squad of 26. We have 25 named so assuming one of the trialists has signed on (or another typo)

We put 50 on them away last season (let's not talk about the home fixture) and while we have massively improved and have named a very strong squad the Midlands seem at the same level, I'd personally have the handicap at mid 50's and would be disappointed if we couldn't cover that.

The way the fixtures/groups work, assuming us and Sheffield both beat Midlands we could draw the last game and both go through. Not suggesting either team would do that deliberately

So just out of curiosity what 17 would we all go with for Midlands out of the 21 man squad?

I'll start

1. Craig Hall liked his link up play opening up Hull last week and feel we would be wasting him putting him wider

2. Josh Guzdek Moved him to the wing and replaced Halliday. Halliday did well when he came back from the yellow card but since all our wingers/fullbacks did well and someone had to miss out the miscatch and sinbining swung it

3. Jason Tali Honestly this was a real 50/50 for me between him and Hey. Obviously we could see Tali more as he was on our side of the pitch and he was against the younger players I think, but it was one of the better games I've seen him play in a while. I'm pretty sure Hey was the one who get dragged back about 10 metres or so but also made some good runs. Could go either way on this one

4. Reece Lyne
5. Luke Briscoe
6. Ben Johnstone
7. Connor Robinson
8. Keelan Foster
9. Joe Lovodua
10. Suaia Matagi
11 Brett Ferres the only one of the squad that didn't get any minutes under his belt against Hull

12 Alex Sutcliffe Picked over Smeaton as despite the dropped balls had a wow of a game in both attack and defence.

13 Loui McConnell

14 Watson Boas
15 Pauli Pauli
16 Brad Knowles
17 Alex Holdstock

I'm imagining Brad and Alex as props to allow Pauli to roam wider like he did against Hull to good effect. so I'm thinking rotate him as an impact sub with Ferres coming off. I feel like Kenga struggled to keep up defensively so he would be the prop to miss out for mine.

Any other ideas/ team line ups others would go with? I'm sure some will think differently and am curious as to how we will differ and what ideas others will have.

Guzdek
Halliday
Hey
Lyne
Briscoe
Johnston
Robinson
Matagi
Lovodua
Knowles
Smeaton
Sutcliffe
McConnell

Pauli
Holdstock
Hall
Boas

Ferres doesn’t get in the 17 for me unless he’s getting game time, tali/hey will depend on form. Think tali looked stronger last week so could be him today

According to the BBC website, Lovodua isn't playing. Boas is hooker with a bench of Holdstock, Pauli, Kenga and Tali.

Is Boas playing the full 80 minutes? I'm confused!

Result: Midlands 4 Dons 40

Disappointed we didn't do better but limiting them to one try is a positive.

Apparently there has been a bug in the camp which meant 5 or so weren't available

Some interesting results today.

Keighley 35 - 6 Dewsbury and Oldham 24 - 20 Halifax

Stand out but Hunslet 12-62 Featherston and North Wales Crusaders 12-40 Swinton are also Hunslet and North Wales were in the play offs with us last year too.

Not sure whether we can look at the first 2 results and see there being less difference between the two leagues than one would think or look at the last two and conclude the opposite.

Match Report

[urlhttps://www.doncasterrugbyleague.co.uk/article/1628/report-%7C-midlands-4-dons-40[/url

Kind of reads like Midlands put their all into the start then fell away as we started going up the gears.

Pauli got a yellow for a late hit and it was during that period they scored their only try so they didn't get anything against 13.

Also reads like a lot of the final passes weren't coming off in the first half so still a lot of improvement for us.

We'll just have to see how we do against Sheffield and then over a month off to work on things