I'm not disbelieving anything that has been said before. I think we've got to a point in the season where the club needs to try to stop the loss of more fans and restore some confidence by dealing with these issues in a more positive manor now.

It's not me that the club needs to win round, as I'll be there next season come what may. But if the club want to limit the damage from this season I believe they need to do more to reassure fans now, rather than wait until later. The situation will only get worse with time if not dealt with.

A good solid post and I agree we need a strong statement of intent from the club to try to prop up what has been a disaster of a season.

Signing players for next year is part of it, but something concrete from the club a join statement from Carl and "Club Doncaster" would go some way towards that.

Don't think we will see many signings till end of season, but I hear what your saying. Gary Thornton will have an idea of who he wants to retain, maybe we start there.

Spot on DM.
The club should make their intent now as you say. Before anymore decide not to come back next season.
They need to build a squad good enough to go through the season next [Champ 1 year to be unbeaten, that may
help towards the debacle this season, and come back up as champions.
Keighley did it a couple of seasons ago.

Some good posts from DM.

Thanks Weighman - much appreciated.

Some Super League clubs are already starting to sign people for next season. We need to be getting involved in sorting next season now too or else we could get left behind.

I know it may be difficult because players are under contract to other clubs at the moment and that may forbid approaches from being made but I would think many of the players we'll be looking to recruit will be youngsters who aren't going to make the grade in Super League and are going to be released by their clubs at the end of the season. (Types like Luke Gale and Kyle Briggs, hopefully.)Should we be trying to get in first to sign them now, like London Broncos did with James Cunningham? That seemed like a smart move on their behalf.

Whitehaven have recently signed some French players as they continue to build. I hope we're seriously looking at recruiting now with next season in mind.

Sad to admit but I've now stopped travelling to away games, whereas up to this season I'd turn up wherever we were playing even if I'd left home on Saturday lunchtime to go to a Bolton football match and wouldn't get back home until Sunday evening via wherever the Dons were playing.

I've spoken to a number of people recently who used to go home and away who now only go to home matches and worse still a number who used to go to home games who have either already stopped going or won't be attending next season - many of these have followed the Club for many years.



In terms of bums-on-seats, the only chance the Club now has of home crowds in excess of 300 - 350 next season is to invest heavily in the playing staff and go on a long winning run at the start of next season. Anything less and I seriously cannot see any reason to open the Keepmoat Stadium on match day. Call me negative but I am speaking honestly and from the heart.



Sentiments shared by many Dons supporters and you are correct, the recovery plan needs to be robust, transparent and communicated honestly to the Club's stakeholders.

I agree with DoubleMovements post, well put.
I have been one of those who have stayed away recently. I think some like me don't mind paying and see your team loose, are beaten by a better team, but seeing players looking out of their depth or devoid of ideas and basic skills, makes me, and possibly others, question if I ought to be spending my money in this way.
I hope things can be turned round and hope GT and PG can do this and we can bounce back from a single season in Championship 1.

According to someone on the fans facebook page, two signings soon to be announced, so could be some good news there.

[iHere's my guess on the club's thinking with regard to this season:[/i

After finishing fourth last season, the club thought they already had a squad good enough to hold their own in this league. With Bradford and London coming down, they probably thought getting into the top four was an unrealistic aim this season.

They decided not to invest extra money to bring in better players as they felt we weren't ready for a crack at Super League until we'd got better structures in place, such as youth development, and possibly a second team. Finishing 5th to 8th was probably their target.

In effect, we'd be treading water this season with a view to building for the future.

Bringing in the young lads was part of this development programme. If the team were doing well enough (not fending off relegation) these lads could be given game time as part of their development.

They'd showed loyalty to the players who had done so well last season and spent more money than they'd ever done before keeping the team together.

[iWhat went wrong?[/i

All the other clubs had decided not to stand still and overtook us by some considerable margin. They have probably used DR to better effect than us too.

[iLessons to be learned:[/i

Never under-estimate the opposition. Always aim to improve because you can't assume others won't.

[iThe future:[/i

Building a team from a position of strength is always easier than building a team from a position of weakness (which is where we're at now). We missed that boat. We haven't got to assume that life in the lower league will be any easier than this one. We need to plan accordingly.

Invest money now to start building before this season ends. Try to get the fans back onside by showing intent for next season as soon as possible.

Apart from a few who think that a new coach is a wand-waver who can put all problems right immediately, I'd hope the majority will see that we do need some time to re-build. The club need to show us the recovery is beginning before this season ends or else we'll all go into the winter fearing more of the same in 2016.

Getting any lost fans back will be difficult but the club needs to try to start to restore people's confidence in them now by showing they're serious about putting things right.

Another very good post DM

Just been down York road and seen a Fev shirt a rhinos shirt 2 rhinos car stickers but nowt from the dons but I'm not surprised
And no I wasn't wearing any of mine either

Feel for the Dons Faithful. Things looked pretty positive at the end of last season. Such a shame to see you guys hit the skids so spectacularly this season. Hope you come good for next year.

Thanks Tom.

We're used to adversity around here and we've not had any for a few seasons. It's like the bad old days all over again. When these things have happened in the past, the future of the club always became doubtful. Hopefully, with the backing of Club Doncaster our future should be safe.

How things go from here probably depends mainly on how much Club Doncaster are prepared to invest.

Brief notes from a meeting tonight that the fans committee attended.
GT stated that the players are low on confidence and low on fitness and it is something the coaching team are working hard on.
Gavin Baldwin has stated that there are 2 plans that have been discussed. one If we stay up and one if we go down. Money has been available to the club and still is, When it is mathematically impossible to stay up then they know which plan to use.
GT has had quite a few players talking to him already and hopes to have his signings sorted as early as possible. He has stated that we have some decent players at the club and would like some to stay, and some would be going but would not name names apart from a positive comment about Kes.
There is hopefully 2 players coming(hopefully on Tues 7.7.15) but again will not mention names until he has got the signature.
Carl has stated that mistakes have been made this season but it a learning curve and hopefully one to put right in future.
We relied too much on the dual reg earlier in this season which didnt give our players time to gain experience, and the calibre of DR that has come this year was nowhere near the skill levels of the DR that we had last year.
The club want to right the wrongs in the future. I will put the full meeting minutes on when Jackie has typed them up and emailed me them.

Hiya peeps, I think that the above statement from the meeting sums up what we the fans have been saying for months, especially the DR issues. I also think that champ, 1. rugby is where we will be next season and have thought that for a long time. This season must go down as the Strangest in my 30 plus years following this club I still cant understand how the majority of players we have now took us to fourth in the league last season but now we cant, win, score trys or even compete with other teams (the writing was clearly on the wall with the defeat at NWC in the cup.)And then the departure of PC (which was nailed on) who suddenly re,found himself and signs for Fev, who then a few weeks later sack their coach ?. Strange goings on all around .I for one will keep supporting the players the club and the management and try to keep a positive outlook, the clubs around us will be watching very carefully and trying to take some of our best players (Clarke , Goat, and one or two more are to good for champ.1.. lastly I would like to bid a fond farewell to MR Dons himself non other than the magnificent Shaun Leaf he has stuck by this club through thick and thin and has always given 100% when he plays, for which I thank him. I will be there Sunday , don't expect anything at all but a decent performance/effort from the players would be nice to see. COYDs.

A statement from the club:

[urlhttp://www.doncasterrugbyleague.co.uk/article/44062/club-statement[/url

At least a win against Hunslet has given us something to cheer.

Titanic Don has reported on the Hunslet thread that Mitch Clark and Matt Groat have already signed for other clubs for next season.

Who else do we reckon will be offered deals at other clubs?

Which players that we presently have should we be aiming to build a team around?

IMO one player we have missed this season has been Robbo. Need to get him signed up - Mr Dependable. I hope that he does not get forgotten about and talking of dependable that's what's been so galling about Shaun Leafs situation, he would have done us a cracking job next year.

Think I'll just wait and see who is retained, there are obviously some I would prefer were here next year, unfortunately that appears to be 2 down already.

They're the players we need to keep otherwise we will struggle to come back up, unless they're signing
Better players! Which I doubt very much.
What has happened to the statement we won't make the same mistakes again and get too far behind.
I'm afraid it looks like the mistakes are happening already!

The likes of Paz, Clarke and Groat were signed pretty much with an understanding that they wouldn't be here next year, as were coming to be in shop window.

Clarke training and playing FT could go on to be a real stand out player IMO.
Groat is probably at a level of a steady SL team player.
Paz if under different circumstances would surely have ended up elsewhere.

I think keeping Carr would be a result.

As for rest of squad all would do a decent job back in CL1 most with added recruitment and new set up could still feature in CH

A bit of good news is that Tuffour is on his way back soon!

Danny Nicklas has left the club. Wish him all the best. www.totalrl.com/forums/index.php ... doncaster/

Danny Nicklas has left the club. Wish him all the best. www.totalrl.com/forums/index.php ... doncaster/