personally I have a bad feeling about this - and agree with moonlight - the club can't expect us to do this all by ourselves if we are short now I honestly don't see that changing by next week unless the club convince some businesses to pitch in (isn't this what they were supposed to do?). However as weighman said - hopefully no shortfall for next week

The problem when it comes to get money from companies as sponsorship for the deal is that they already approach all they can for sponsorship, as they have done in previous years. If a company sponsors Cooke say £500, that is £500 they won't be sponsoring the club in other ways and so just pushes the cost else where within the club. The trick is to find a company that had no interest in sponsoring the Dons, but would be interesting in sponsoring Paul Cooke...is this likely?

Also can I congratulate the members of this forum on us getting a thread which grows quicker than the real Ale Thread...I never thought I'd see the day!

Surely that applies to the fans also---they have a certain amount of money they can afford to spend on the Dons and anymore than that and they will struggle.

Exactly my point, we know the situation from personal experience, so we should appreciate the situation is the same elsehwere

Fair enough...but no need to shout about it

i'm sure the club as well as the Trust are very thankful for every penny they can get,however big or small - we all have our limits
since being made redundant last year and only finding part time work my income has halved in a year so my funds are really limited like most people but i'm sure any financial gesture is welcomed - here's hoping it helps in some small way.

Fray Bentos might be up for it.

Surely that can't be true

I'd take it!

Hope that there is no link between Paul Cook, Real Ale and Fray Bentos, it would make Jemmo's all time favourite Dons 'signing', Schoey, look like Slimming World champion.

The man from Del Monte would say no

Doncaster RLFC are making a further appeal to their fans and supporters to make a final push in their attempts to sign Challenge Cup winner Paul Cooke.

The Dons' fans and supporters have so far kindly pledged £475 per month to the 'Squadbuilder' fund since the club held an EGM last month.

Former Hull FC star Cooke met with the Dons chairman and chief executive yesterday at the Keepmoat Stadium (Friday 6 January) and the outcome is that the club believe they are still some £125 per month short in their squadbuilder fund.

Dons' chairman John Scarrow said: "We held a very positive meeting with Paul yesterday and he's still very keen to join the Dons.

"To make things clear - we (the Dons) are willing to match the £600 per month target pledge to secure the services of Paul.

"With a total monthly income of £1200 - this should allow us to offer him a part-time role within our successful community development team.

"I met Paul for the first time yesterday and I must say he is in tremendous shape and his attitude is first class.

"I'm sure he will be an asset to the club, both on and off the field, and his experience and qualities as a player will help us push for a return to the Championship."

The Dons' Squadbuilder form can be downloaded from our website. However, a form can be emailed or posted out to you if you wish. Please contact the club on 01302 765888 if you require any further information.

Scarrow added: "On behalf of the club, I'd like to thank everyone who has so far contributed to the Squadbuilder fund. I appreciate that times are hard in the current economic climate we find ourselves in but this is simply an opportunity we cannot afford to miss.

"Paul has made a commitment to give his response to the club this coming Monday. The outcome of Paul's response will then be discussed at the Advisory Group's meeting on Tuesday evening.

"Give what you can afford to give, and we'll hopefully see Paul Cooke playing in a Dons strip at the Keepmoat Stadium very soon."

I'm inclined to take advice from supporters of the clubs who have first hand experience and some have bothered to post warnings on the P.C.matter. If the signing is made I hope all goes well . At least we won't be able to say we were'nt warned.

Let's have some more maths shall we?
£475 per month ... that's the equivalent of 24 supporters pledging £20 a month, or 48 pledging £10.
That gives a handle on the scale of the response.
FFS!!! ... hang your heads in shame the bulk of the Dons 500 fans. That's 90% of them not giving at £10/month average, or 95% not giving at £20/month average.
I am one of those averaged out 24 to 48 supporters, I pledged £20/month.
I ain't giving another £5 a month, while others sit on their s.
Not because I can't afford it, but on principle.
We are almost there, so it would be a shame to fall short.
I could be persuaded to up my pledge if the others all did, but I don't think it's right.
What do others think??

We need 6/7 more people pledging £20/month, or double that pledging £10/month .. come on!!!

Well done the club for offering half of the money.
We can't grumble at that!!!!

Whether you like Paul Cooke or not, if we don't sign him we will be severely disadvantaging ourselves coming into a new season without a quality stand-off.
So we had better sign him.

PS There needs to be a better response on here of late today, because it is put to Paul on Monday.
It's obviously already been scaled down to a part-time post owing to the response.
COYD.

Lets hope this appeal works.
If the Chairman says he is in tremendous shape thats good enough for me .

We have to hope people are doing what they can afford but have to appreciate that everyones situation is different. Personally, with my wife recently redundant and redundancy hanging over me I am not in a position to offer as much as much as this time last year.

However I would be willing to throw some extras in a bucket each week when I have an idea of what I have spare, I guess a lot more people would too and that would soon add up. The problem is that it is not a committed amount and so wont be taken into account

Agree Jemmo.
Do what you can afford . Keeping my fingers crossed .

Lets hope that they are not putting all the irons into one fire, just in case they get burnt. They made need a back up plan.

thought we wud have found out the answer today, my hopes are beginning to fade a little

Hoping for a press release today .

A media event to announce a very important new signing for Doncaster RLFC will take place at the Keepmoat Stadium tomorrow afternoon (Thursday).

My money's on it being John Okul

I'm hoping it's a hooker ...

However ..
You sometimes have to cook the book to book the the Cooke.