I also think that they may be underestimating the quality of Championship 1.

For goodness sake it took quite an effort to get out of it last time and we had a better team!

I think they could get quite a shock unless they buck up their ideas.

Obviously players can't be named as they are still contracted and involved in upcoming games but the signings are alot better than i expected and will be very competitive for champ 1, The key positions which we failed to address is a priority and the fact we have beaten off teams in the championship for a couple of these signings prove what vision this club has for the future, i'm only a fan like the rest of us and will be sceptical until i see it in black and white but things are being done correctly and the positivity and honesty i got from carl was very refreshing, i know that was said for this season but numerous things conspired to make this an horrendous year, i'm normally quite negative but my gut is telling me to stick together and give club doncaster a chance. COYD

I'm all for giving them a chance to put things right , and I sincerely hope you right about the upcoming signings leafy, but they have to get it right this time. A good season may not be enough to get fans back, it needs to be a promotion winning season. Whether GT is the man to do it, who knows, but we have to give the guy a chance with his own team, as for Carl Hall, well quite frankly I have every faith in him , as for club Doncaster, I need convincing.

A very fair assessment and fully agree promotion next season has got to be the aim, as for GT i have the same reservations as many on here but was assured the person you see is not the same behind closed doors (players have alot of respect for him and certainly won't take any crap) so giving him time to build his own stamp seems only fair. The club doncaster issue is a weird one they have good people behind the scenes and a decent financial clout but seems they constantly need a kick up the backside to demonstrate that! COYD

There seems to be a drift back to talking about the key positions and once this is sorted then we will all live happy ever after in cloud Donny land.



At Championship level, who can you get with more experience than P Cooke at 6? Internationalist D Scott at 1 – did he not play fullback against France? K Kesik has been re-signed – to play at 9? We had R Wilkinson at 7 and because of his injury we had other players at half back – including Danny Nicklaus.



Just looking at this, does this not seem like a very strong competitive spine? How could this be strengthened? Yet in the first half of the season with P Cooke in charge we were hammered time and again. Also, we were utterly thrashed by League 1 side North Wales Crusaders.



When P Cooke departed and G Thornton took over the helm, he brought in a new half back pairing. Result – we were trashed. G Thornton tried different players at fullback. Result – we were trashed. He brought in another hooker. Result – we were trashed.



Can someone please explain why a current problem is/was the spine of the team? Also, what exactly did the coaches/management at Donny fail to address?



Also, if the spine of the team is not the problem, then does this mean that the problem is with other players? Or, is the real problem elsewhere and the underlying issues caused by this problem manifesting themselves in a poor team performance?



What is certain, is that whatever problem lies with our play, neither P Cooke nor G Thornton managed to resolve it.



COYD

The number of faults with this side is manifold .



Apart from a few notable exceptions, there is little pace in this side and next to no artistry.



The forward power is woeful and the scrum halves are all pants, with the exception of play one miss eight Wilko, who is a diamond when fit (or was).



A club has to have three great halfbacks to allow for injury. The halfbacks have to be livewires with plenty of leadership skills, have a sidestep and be FAST.



They have to play behind a dominant pack.



The nearest we came was a fully fit Cooke and Wilko, but Paul was getting a bit slow and they hardly ever played together anyway, because Wilko was nearly always crocked.



We had a gem in Scotty, but he was the only standout player for me.

The rest were not good enough in the main.

Which in no way is meant to imply that they didn't give their all.

Just not enough class.





Get some South Sea Islanders for goodness sake, let's have some excitement for a change!

COYD

What's happened to Waterman i've not seen him since Whitehaven at Castle park?

Can't disagree with S-O.



Going back to the spine:

Hooker - ok, could lose a few pounds

Loose forward - need someone creative who's prepared to pass the ball

Scrum half - is Wilko playing next year? Cover needed.

Stand off - Needed.

Full back - no issues with Scotty.



This season we've never had a regular pairing at half back who have struggled in any case behind a beaten pack.



Quality signings needed please.

When did co break a defensive line from within our own half? Not in any game I've seen this year...

Butterfield and Waterman used to do it for fun....



Not big enough, good in attack coming in at half back, good goal kicker in main, and good under high ball when not having to compete...



IMO a fit Carr, if can get back to player he was, would leave Scotty for dead.



Wilko, just doesn't do I for me either weak in defence and injury prone and from what gets posted dare say a liability outside of playing



As for Speed If we ever got balls out to wingers I think you'd be hard pressed to find any quicker than Tom...or finisher



The defence in Centre I think is questionable and partly as don't think half backs pickup there roles well enough...

There was a suggestion at the last home game that he'd gone again.

Will be sadly missed next season if the rumours are true.

My concern is that, in theory, we will need a better squad than that which started 2015.



The results against Hunslet (promoted from C1) and North Wales (will probably finish 5th or 6th in C1) in March suggest that we would have struggled to get out of C1 this season.



Recent results in the 8's would support people's theories that we continue to go backwards, so I hope and pray that you are wrong.

Waterman tweeted the other day that he was looking forward to Saturday and showed a picture of the skirlaugh changing room. Not heard anything about him leaving, but assumed he had after seeing it.

Agreed

Communications between the club and the fans is still really poor and i will definatly raise that point at the meeting on the 9th

No Scotty ... well that's pants, but he deserves a better side to ply his trade in.



I really can't get my head around how we will be bringing in better, I really can't.



When Scotty joined our side he was a bit of an add on as an extra winger, and in his first match had a mare at Keighley.

But he rapidly became a great player.

The point being he joined a side of decent established players.

Now he is one of only a handful.

How times change.



Watching Leeds win the Challenge Cup, I had to think what shiite we watch in comparison.

A few players have bought into the club doncaster vision and without a doubt should and could be playing better than champ1 next season, a few had better offers so for them to want to come here can only be a good thing for the future. Being only a mere fan i haven't been told that much but would be very disappointed if were wasn't at least competitive next year. COYD

As competitive, as what?

You've got to want a lot better than this year ... when we weren't competitive at all!



Sheffield Eagles should be our benchmark, style of play, exciting players, ethos, the works.



We were getting there and now they are going full-time and have left us for dead!



We haven't got a clue!

Club Doncaster hasn't got a clue!

Everything about the seagulls is aimed towards the super league and their ambitions and goals is deffo what we should be looking at i 100% agree, once again the catchment area issue will i feel always hold us back ( a big city like sheffield will always be more appealing than doncaster) so sadly our steps will always be smaller than theirs. For me club doncaster need step up to the plate big time this season and nothing other than promotion will be good enough. A raft (no pun intended) of seas south islanders sounds good to me also!

Castleford aren't a big city club population 40,000 they don't do too bad maybe they have got a big city management team.

I travel to cas/leeds/hull nearly every other weekend to watch my son play and there's no sign of football pitches for miles, the kids were born in those area's with rugby balls under their arms that's the mentality i'm trying to get at, correct me if i'm wrong but for the size of doncaster to only have 3/4 junior clubs running compared to say treble or quadruple that of castleford tells you how hard it is to promote this sport here. I teach sport in different schools around doncaster and the lack of interest combined with lack of knowledge about rugby with the teachers is unreal so how on earth do we expect to produce home grown talent?

I think you better go to Specsavers I also work in those three areas every week & I can assure you there are lots of football pitches in all those areas,how hard do you think Sheffield have found it to promote the game of rugby league in a city dominated by two major football league clubs? Doncaster joined the RL in the 1951-52 season Sheffield joined in the 1984-85 season so we have had a thirty three year start on them as a professional rugby league club yet Sheffield appear to be miles ahead of Doncaster & they survive on very low home attendances.

You won't get any arguments from me that sheffield's approach to building a club embarrasses ours, the very fact they have 2 representives at nearly every high school game throughout south yorkshire looking for talent tells you were light years behind, i'm not defending what's happened this season or glossing over the false promises we were told at the start of the season in fact i intend raising a few points on the 9th when i attend. As for needing specs luckily i'm only in my 30's so the umpteen rugby pitch's i see every sat morning in west yorkshire are real

We did produce our own local players from our local amateur teams, Doncaster based players who appeared in the Dons teams of the late 1980's & early 90's include



Audley Pennant,Neil Turner,Dave Bell,Mark Roache,Kevin Parkhouse,Alan Carr,Mark Gibbon,Alan Shillito,Ian Fletcher,John Evans,Graham Wainwright,Lol Freeman,Andy Rothwell,Tony Chappell, Howard Roberts,Ernie Lake,Ian Trigg.



There were amateur teams based at Doncaster Transport,Rossington,Bentley,Askern,Toll Bar, Moorends,Bullcroft & Upton sadly some of these clubs are now defunct.



Every summer the Bentley club run a seven a side competition at Tattersfield with teams from all over the UK taking part, the Dons also held an annual mid week workshops knock out competition for local firms & business's



Regarding rugby league in local schools Doncaster Schools played a team from Widnes schools as a curtain raiser to the challenge cup final at Wembley stadium, if my memory serves me correct they also went to America to play a curtain raiser game in Milwaukee for the American Challenge match Wigan v Warrington in 1989.

RL Express suggests that Brambani has signed for Batley, along with Pat Walker and James Davey from the Eagles.