Before I set off that morning I'd been informed that Craig had 'gone' and wouldn't be at the game. I suppose it was inevitable that Ellery would follow but the fact that the post-promotion interview was all about his decision to quit still rankles with me.

I said then and stand by it now that the decision to go should have been announced later in the week so that the players and supporters could have at least enjoyed the result at the time.

Ray Green phoned me that afternoon and for once I was pretty speechless. I don't think I could take it in and just about managed to thank him for letting me know.

I attended the funeral at York Minster. What a fantastic turn out!

Even under people like Singe there were chunks of fans who left saying "I won't come again while he is here". Most of which never came back even when he had gone. No one will ever be universally liked, it's a sliding scale

I agree, no one's going to be liked by everyone but I thought the fans stuck by Paul Cooke incredibly well when we had that horrendous season in the championship and finished bottom, after finishing fourth the previous season. I don't recall any forum discussions about wanting him sacked even though we were doing so badly.

I didn't want Paul Cooke to go. For whatever reason, the club (and maybe Paul Cooke) went down the youth policy route, rather then investing in more experience, and it went wrong. I recall a 'meet the players' event before the season started where the young lads were paraded. Many of them left as the season progressed as they weren't getting picked. We ended up with a thin squad.

I always had a lot of time for Tony Miller. He was easy to talk to and a good guy. I'm not sure he got the credit he deserved.

Richard Horne is pretty much a 'mystery man'. He doesn't just keep his cards close to his chest, he keeps them under his skin! The lack of closer contact with supporters probably doesn't help him build any sort of bond with the fans, which doesn't help with his popularity. Maybe that doesn't bother him, maybe that's the type of person he is. I don't know.

Tony Miller definitely doesn't get the credit her deserved, particularly for his last stint at the club. He pretty much rebuilt the mess that Hanley left and got us into the top half of the Championship, and with only one (what I'd call) star player in Paul Cooke, who incidentally didn't feature in the grand final run in.

Paul Cooke kicked that side on then, as you say, it went badly for whatever reason. Although I'd agree we went too young. By his own admission I think he'd lost the dressing room and had no no choice but to leave by the end, which is shame because he had a real rugby brain and think he could have kicked on. I do remember people calling for him at the time, and there was particular anger over him not playing himself, which amplified when he then played for Featherstone briefly.

Personally I have never been one for calling for a person to lose their job, I'll never know the full story of what is happening so to expect a person and their family to go without so I can be a bit happier for 80 minutes 20 times a year doesn't feel like it's my call to make. I have preferences and those confidants close to me know damn well what those are

100% agree with Tony Miller statement very underrated coach and very approachable

Not a mention of the Dons in the Free Press.
I was convinced Steve Hossack would do a number on us...he doesn't buy the bull crap...
Perhaps we avoided giving him details....or he has given up watching.

Sticking my head back in to say Prozac has been at the matches recently, although, given his advancing age, its fair to say that he may have fallen asleep.

If my memory is correct, the current Head of Media at Club Doncaster is a former Free Press Sports Editor, so you'd think they'd try to at least get something in every week.

As for the stats stuff, yeah, I agree with everything I've read on here. It's easy to get carried away with stuff from time to time, however, the next load of updates I'm doing should include as many coaches as I can get information on. Please bare in mind, that I'm only a fat bloke with serious mental health issues, so I'm trying to do stuff at a pace that doesn't burn me out.

Seems like a good call. Look after yourself mate.

Take care, Donny, mate.

We'll look forward to seeing the stats when you've had time to put them together. Thanks for taking the time to do it.

Interesting Stats from the Dons first two seasons.
1951-52 Coach Gareth Price
Played 40 League & Cup Games Won 21.Lost18 Draw1.
Season 1952-53 Coach Jack Kitching
Played 42 League & Cup Games Won 12.Lost 29 Draw 1. (Includes friendly match against Australia)
Jack Kitching was coach at the Dons from Sept 1952 to September 1957

Thanks, Geoff.

It's amazing to think they played so many games back then. It makes you wonder how teams survive on gate receipts from 9 home league games these days.

Yes it was a lot of games in a season the players were all part time only13 players no subs the scrum half had to feed the ball in to the middle of the scrum & the front row had to work hard to win the ball from the scrum.
At Christmas they played three game in 7 days Xmas Day, Boxing Day & New Years day & Easter they played Good Friday & Easter Monday & again the following Saturday.

How do Donny...long time no see.
Take care buddy....we like stats on here so keep up the good work.

Featherstone sack Sean long who are 8pts clear with just 6 games remaining because they want to ensure promotion, admittedly that seems extreme but they are ambitious and tunnel visioned for going up now compare that with us and horne it's absolutely crazy!

Featherstone recognise it's this year or never as far as Super League is concerned with IMG rules coming in next year.

Sean Long's sacking does seem rather extreme. James Ford is a good man to have as 'interim coach' but Fev seem to have pressed the panic button. If all clubs had a similar sacking process, no coach would last five minutes.

With regards to Richard Horne, I've never been his greatest fan but I thought we played some very smart rugby in the early part of this season. We completed our sets well, didn't try to score everytime we had the ball and built up pressure on the opposition which eventually ground them down. Connor Robinson's kicking was intrumental in this as we were often turning the ball over very near the opposition's line.

In hindsight, when we were playing a 'near perfect' game, we were only winning by small margins. Once we dropped off from this high performance level, we've become very vulnerable.

In his interview, after North Wales, you could see how disappointed Richard Horne was as they had a game plan to beat them down the middle but we failed. In my view, we have never had a pack that has been good enough to win this league but I thought we were a step closer to it this season. Unfortunately, we're probably not as good as I hoped we were.

There also appeared to be a hint of, 'What else can we do?' in the interview. It must be exasperating for any coach to see a plan ripped up on the field with Plan X, Y or no plan at all taking over.

I do feel for the players as they're proud people and won't want this to be happening. They'll be hurting more than us. The only way out of this downturn is to build up confidence and confidence is only built up by winning. At least we've got a couple of opportunities to do that against London and Cornwall.

If we don't go up, there needs to be a frank and open discussion as to why we've failed to get out of this league again. In the unlikely event that we go up, Club Doncaster will have to make some serious financial investments or else we'll be odds on to come straight back down again.

Featherstone lose and Long is sacked just hours after stories surface linking him with an Assistant Coach role at Warrington ... it will be interesting to see if he does end up at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

Is that the one (and you may remember this) where Gavin says Richard continues to have Carl's backing and Carl continues to have mine.

I expect very light discussions about what went wrong over a beer then come to the conclusion everybody is on a nice little earner so why spoil things we go again!

If (see when) we fail to get promoted again this season despite seeming to throw money at short-term fixes rather than doing it right over the closed season...Horne needs to be relieved of his duties due to his failure to achieve targets over the last 6 seasons, I would also question the person who has allowed this apathy to continue without taking positive action to ensure the goals were met.

Sadly as others have said it will be "Well done, its been tough be we go again and go all out for winning the League".

Or we get back doored in via the IMG process - due to Stadium etc etc and don't earn the promotion but we stick with Horne as we "got promoted" .

I remember it well. It was part of the reason you and I started to become disillusioned with the purpose of the Fans Panel.

The fans panel always struck me as an "illusion of being involved" event, similar to the SLO role - Barry did a great job at challenging the status quo, but since then it's been much more "let's just pretend everything is great".

Yes, one of a number of reasons not to take the process seriously.

It was no real surprise when the more 'open' forum gave way to the Club significantly reducing the number of supporter representatives who they were prepared to have dialogue with.

The current arrangements also require the fans within the group to sign up to certain Ts&Cs. This was when Wanderer and I left.

Barry Brown did an excellent job as SLO. He really tried hard to help bridge the gap between club and fans. I miss him posting on here. His successor, Carol Green, didn't have the best of health and missed a considerable number of the meetings. I've not seen Carol at the matches this season. I hope she's okay. As far as I'm aware there is no SLO now.

A vibrant link between club and fans is important. The ability for fans to pose questions and get answers matters. If I was in charge, building proper links with fans would be top of my list of priorities. Difficult questions shouldn't be considered as an inconvenience, they should be seen as an opportunity to bring everyone together.

Does Barry post on Facebook at all?

Those scripted interviews inside Carl's office used to make me cringe, the questions that were asked was that rehed he used to start answering them before the question had finished! Club doncaster have built up a cult following that are sent out to shoot down anyone who dare question the regime.