One of the reasons why our team is so fit, if I am not mistaken.

Thanks Stand-Offish ... I've listened to the You Tube link. That's my era and my sort of music. Good stuff!

Chunkster ... Are you the fitness coach then? If you are, I forgot to thank you for all your good work. Keep 'em pounding those tackle bags!

Hi, i have emailed Carl and this was the reply that i received. (Thank you Carl for replying)

1) Re: signings we will put on the club website as soon as a player commits, in the meantime we would like to sign the majority of the squad, as we all know what its like to have a high turn over of players.
We would also like to add 3 or 4 quality players to the squad we already have. We know we need an old head in the halfs but to go and try and find one is not easy as they must come on what terms we pay and I will not put club at risk for any player.

2) We can't really post stuff Re: player injuries on a forum as we like to keep these things away from the opposition.

3) We called a fans meeting at the Dome last year with chairman,myself,tony miller,ray green and this was a great opportunity for everyone to attend but only 7 fans turned up.

I have re-emailed Carl to see if he will consider doing another fans meeting before the end of the season, i know this is short notice but i think that the club does need to hold these meeting. Hopefully more fans will attend and ask questions and make it a more enjoyable meeting for everyone to air their views..

Thanks for e-mailing Carl, rugbyman. Thanks for the reply Carl.

Point 1) Thanks for telling us of the intention to post the signings on the ckub website. That will be helpful. It's extremely prudent not to put the club at risk by over-stretching the budgets. I'm sure we all support you on that one. We've got to trust your judgement to spend the money wisely. I think you've done a trememdous job putting together such a decent squad given the circumstances.

Point 2) I appreciate that we don't want to be giving our secrets away to the opposition but it'd be nice if we were told the same things that go into the Star and Free Press directly from the club.

The forum could be used to promote the club in the same way the newspapers do. We seemed to be kept in the dark about quite a lot of things. For example: Ryan Steen seems to have been lost without trace. What has happened to him?

A bit of direct feedback for us from the coach would be great. That would have people logging into the Dons' website or the forum for sure. I think it's a missed opportunity to bring the fans and club closer together if this isn't done.

Peter Green used to write a column on the website some time ago. Bring on Matt Carbutt!

Point 3) The fact that only seven fans turned up at last year's meeting is alarming. That should be telling us that something is wrong somewhere. I can't recall the meeting, so maybe I never got to hear about it.

Do the club have an e-mail list of season ticket-holders that they could contact when such meetings are to be held? I think that might help.

I'm sure a lot of work goes into promoting the club to get corporate sponsorship and the like, and in today's economic climate it is difficult to get anyone to part with their cash. I very much appreciate how hard it must be to try to run a club on a shoestring budget.

Ultimately we all need to find ways of increasing the fan base. We might then be able to afford to bring in the more experienced players to add to the good group of lads we have.

Personally I think that building up a fan base begins with the simple things: Good communications; keeping people informed; listening to constructive ideas; and working together. All these things help to create loyalty.

I reckon we have quite a number of stay-away fans who feel alienated (for whatever reasons) and a good place to start would be to try to get them back.

The season ticket offer for 2011-12 is a bargain and a great initiative from the club. We just need more loyal fans like the small band of people we presently have!

Have the club any ideas on how we can start to get the missing fans back? Can the missing fans post on here and tell us why you don't come down anyone?

Let's all try to work together on this and see if we can improve match day attendances. Over to the club and the rest of the fans ...

What we did once have at Belle Vue was the chance to meet the players after the games, quite quickly after the games.
The venues were the Earl of Doncaster and later the Rovers Return just outside the ground. The drinks prices were reasonable, unlike the Keepmoat and they were palatable, also unlike the Keepmoat.

So a fair number of keen fans, like me, would tarry a while on the way home and wait for the players and clap them as they came in.
Mingle a bit, tell them what a good game they had and have a laugh without pestering them.
The MOTM cheque would be awarded and both Chairmen would say a little about the game.

Even if they did that at the Keepmoat (and they have) I wouldn't stop, and I should imagine few would. The place is only for watching sport or attending a function, if unavoidable.
It is a soulless place.

So the upshot is I have never spoken to anyone of the current Dons players apart from China and Craig Lawton who I see occasionally knocking about.
I see players on the field and there is no special allegiance or a feeling of community, next to none in fact. They come they go.
It's a shame, but I just got used to it, as I did watching games at the Keepmoat without a pint. I had a couple at Keighley because it's better and cheaper.

The Dons have NO say in what is served up and at what price, so they are knackered and so are discerning drinkers. I can get two pints of Sam's Old Brewery real ale or Sovereign for the price of a pint of slape John's at the Keepmoat. So as soon as the whistle goes, after clapping the players, I'm on the 10 to 5 bus into town for a decent pint on the way home.

That's just my story of course.

Now someone could quite rightly say, it's about rugby not drink.
Or they could say stump up the money you tight git.
But not for me thanks.

I agree that there are some negative aspects to playing at the Keepmoat, as you mentioned. Personally I don't like the fact that people can't pay at the gate but I understand why stadium policy doesn't allow it.

The more positive angle is that we probably attract players to the club that we might not otherwise get if we played elsewhere.

Unfortunately there's not much we can do about some of the aspects we don't like. It probably frustrates the club too although from a corporate aspect, I would imagine there are quite a lot of benefits.

I feel it is even more important that when the club can do things within their powers to bring the club and fans together, they should.

I cant believe you use to have a head of curly locks SO !!

I thought your avatar at first was Matt King or Jim Morrison. Shows what I know!!

You would be surprised, I had big hair at one time before my dad's recessive genes kicked in.
It was never curly though.
I used to backcomb it at one stage, so it looked like an Afro.
Not far off Tim's.
I was very young .........