Here's the results from the last round, they're not as easy to come across as you'd hope

Leigh Centurions 62 – 12 Workington Town
York City Knights 30 – 16 Newcastle Thunder
Barrow Raiders 50 – 6 Bradford Bulls
Batley Bulldogs 38 – 18 Rochdale Hornets
Widnes Vikings 22 – 16 Featherstone Rovers
Dewsbury Rams 44 – 26 Swinton Lions
Oldham 12 – 24 Doncaster
Halifax 8 – 52 Sheffield Eagles

Very good S/O!

It was past my bed time when I made that post last night!

A home draw avoiding Leigh and Widnes would be helpful.

We've not helped ourselves by being stuck in this division for several seasons now but any hopes we may have of becoming a top level Championship side cannot reasonably be achieved without better attendances than we're presently getting.

Beating two Championship teams to get to Wembley will be tough but could this be the springboard the town needs to create more interest in the game?

Any further progress in this competition will make getting promoted from this league harder, just look at those Halfiax and Bradford results when teams play twice in a few days

That's true. John Kear did say he was putting out a weakened team on Wednesday night though. I'm not sure about Halifax. I would imagine their heads were somewhere else after getting to the Challenge cup semi's.

Would getting to Wembley have a bigger effect on rugby in Doncaster then getting promoted? Getting promoted the last time didn't do much for attendances? Or is getting crowds of 1,500 (not counting away fans) just something that will never happen?

One thing is for sure, it is academic without promotion and we can only get that via the play-offs almost.
I can't see Whitehaven not getting top slot ... but certainly not us.
And playing away in play-offs is pretty much a route to defeat.
We have to beat Oldham and Hunslet away in the next two to get back on track ... difficult!!

A home draw doesn't mean that we at home!

That's true. John Kear did say he was putting out a weakened team on Wednesday night though. I'm not sure about Halifax.

Hx basically put out their Reserve side nobody who played v Bradford included

We don't have that luxury, we'd have pretty much the same players for all three.

Although the irony of that means the championship side we draw might themselves play a week side against us

I would have thought it would make more sense to play the 1895 final before the challenge cup final can't see many neural fans staying behind after the challenge cup final to watch a cup final for which there is no prize money.

I believe the original plan was to play the game before the Challenge Cup final but the RFL announced that for technical reasons it couldn't be done.

You little money-grabber Geoff: Fancy thinking neutrals would only want to watch it if money was at stake!



The Challenge cup winning fans will be off to celebrate and the losers will want to get home as quickly as possible!

The concept of giving the lower league players the chance to play at Wembley is an excellent one. It'll be our only realistic chance of ever seeing the Dons play at Wembley too. The planning leaves something to be desired but it can hopefully be improved upon for next season.

The possibility of avoiding midweek games needs to be looked into as well but I suppose that's tricky without having a bunch of blank weekends without league fixtures.

Dons have drawn Sheffield Seagulls at home in the cup

I tend to agree, cup runs are nice especially for Clubs with a big squad. For us the only important thing is getting out of this division.

I wonder where 'home' might be for this fixture?

Outer Mongolia ?

Sheffield?
Does anyone really care ... I hear Gareth Southgate is moving from footie to be our next coach ... he has all the necessary qualifications ... he's useless!

Why does it say we are away to leigh wednesday 26th june for 1895 cup on the website on the fixture list.
Yet under news heading we are at home to eagles as said.
atrociously run website.

It could be raised with the Club, quite genuinely, but I'm not sure that the feedback would be welcome.

Anyone who spots mistakes is a moaner ....
That mistake wasn't there before a moaner created it.

When I've asked the club why fixtures have not been amended properly (or timeously) in the past, they've told me the RFL is responsible for that part of the site. It is created by a direct feed from the RFL.

The fixture list still shows the Newcastle game as being played on 23rd June when it should be 28th July.

The Whitehaven game is listed as being played at Featherstone but the Newcastle games is still shown as being played at the Keepmoat (incorrectly).

The Dons issued a statement about these two games at the beginning of May but it isn't possible to view news items announced prior before 31st May now as clicking the website link to earlier news items results in an error message.

Quite how the fixtures page shows we've got an away game at Leigh on 26th June is impossible to fathom.

There is no wonder fans become confused and annoyed by the poor quality of communications.

The statement was released on the Dons Official site on 30 April 2019.

That's right, Gary. It was 30th April. I thought it was 1st May. I've managed to dig out the original link:

[urlhttp://doncasterrugbyleague.co.uk/article/55916/news-[/url

Sheffield game being played at Featherstone...Great

Total advantage of home draw lost, hopefully Wembley will be free

I think it serves them bloody right ...
This has been a problem for a while now ...unsolved.
Apart from the fact that Eagles have been given a leg up, revenue is lost.
So any delusions of substantial earnings are pie in the sky.

I agree SO exactly right.
The unsolved problem of probably 6/7 yrs has now cost them money in
this cup game as it will in the league matches.
Nonsensical but who are we to moan.