I thought you'd said previously you weren't watching us next year anyway?

I won't be. But I at least expected the team to be competetive this year.

The club obviously thought that their long-term plan was the best way to go. Recruiting youngsters now with a view to them developing into good players later.

From what we've been told, the club [uchose[/u to go down this route. It was announced that we had the biggest playing budget in the history of the club. We can only assume they [uchose[/u not to spend it, perhaps with Donny's thoughts in mind to invest at a later time.

Implicating the Rovers in all of this seems pure speculation. Would John Scarrow, Carl Hall, and Paul Cooke be happy to have their hands tied behind their back? I think not!

The club will never be able to reveal the total extent of their budget spend to us, and consequently will never be able to totally dispel the rumour mill with regards to any potential Rovers' interference. We have to believe that the people who are running the Dons are happy with the club's finances or else we would have heard rumblings at the fans' forum to the contrary.

The Dons (as a club) either believed the current squad was good enough to stay up and didn't need strengthening, or they were prepared to rely on DR players from Hull to plug our gaps.

It is critical that we stay up this season in order for any future plans (as mentioned by Donny) to come to fruition. We do have a good team in charge at the Dons. It doesn't mean they always get it right. None of us do, but we need to support them and do our very best to turn the bad start around.

Sadly as it stands at the moment we are going to have a young team who are likely to be relegated and could spell some very tough times for the club.

Its not about spending massive on a full squad of "stars" its about signing quality in the right positions S-O gave good examples in Snitch and Scott and I'd add Waterman to that bracket to (just doesn't seem to get enough game time).

I keep mentioning the Rovers as we were promised that the "merge" into Club Doncaster would only benefit the club and thus far I as a supporter am yet to see anything that has improved in fact that and the sharing with the Eagles seem to have lead to a reduction in quality for the long suffering Dons fan as evidenced on here by other users comments.

You have to speculate to accumulate, at the moment our survival in this division is dependent on a random assortment of players in positions we don't need from Hull, I don't see how these enhance our team they just rock and corrode the team spirit of those who put in the hard work in training and just get swapped out for a random from Hull.

I also have to question the judgement of signing two players with long term injuries, I think in the case of one we were sold a pup.

The quote of a larger budget than ever before is just management speak it could just be 1p more than previous, and in what iteration of the Dons are we talking the current setup or before, as I think the Singe's all stars cost more than the current team we are putting out. So in that statement while accurate needs to be taken within the context of "which Dons" they are referring to.

I would even say the Hanley's Dons had a higher playing budget than the current seem.

Some good & justified points.

COYD

We won't go down, I'm confident in that, won't be the season we were hoping for, some big scores coming probably, but we'll be ok.

I think that could be termed the "Aston Villa" mindset or sticking to RL the Bronco's/Bulls mindset.

[iThe owners are very clear that I have to present them with a strategic plan every three years. The main basis of it is Club Doncaster.

Club Doncaster can mean many things, but ultimately it means my job is to drive more revenue into the Keepmoat Stadium and into this club to improve the playing budget, which gives Paul Dickov the best possible chance of obtaining the highest possible position in the league. The business plan is not about the owners taking money out of the club. It’s about getting more money in. The first step was taking over the Dons.[/i

I haven't previously seen that. However, there is no doubt that it can be interpreted as 'We took over the Dons to give Paul Dickov more money to spend'.

Worrying!

It is worrying Wanderer its very clear from that its all about the Rovers and their success we are just there to generate income for them to spend.

The Eagles moving in was just another way to earn them money.

Well I don't buy into this conspiracy stuff.
The Rovers can't be hobbling the Dons.
The only way they will make some money from the Dons is if we are successful.
Or we are just a trinket, and that is DOOMED to failure.
It doesn't make sense.

How can it be conspiracy stuff when it has been stated publicly.

It is just my opinion Steve, we won't go down. I think the club realise that super league in the next couple of years is probably unrealistic, with other clubs far better prepared, they've made no secret that the youngsters are for the future, don't really believe all this " everything done for rovers benefit". But I guess we'll see

The revenue generated by a semi pro RL team is miniscule compared to that of a full time Soccer club even in Championship 1,
With an average gate of 600 the gate receipts would be around £6k per home game taking into account season tickets ,concessions
and walk ups. Take away staff wages , players bonuses ,medical supplies, facility running costs and away travel costs and you would be very lucky to see any return on your investment at all without the Rugby League disbursement cash.
The two main owners of the club are people who made their multi millions in Doncaster and want to give something back ,for which they should be highly commended , not derided as profiteers .
When the said gentleman have a net worth in excess of £500 million and it is well documented in The Yorkshire Post that Terry Bramall himself has given over £100 million to charity in the last 7 years it makes some of the quotes on here laughable . If you are a true fan, then get behind what the club are trying to achieve instead of snide comments about season tickets sold under false pretences and the like. COYD

Well now I know who Chewspaker is.

Well I suspect an investment of a small portion of the "net worth" could turn us into a very successful club in the RL world. As you have pointed out running a CL1 club is small amount compare to life in the football league, hell I suspect Super League clubs cost less to run than most FL1 or Championship clubs with ease.

I wouldnt say the Rovers guys are profiteering from the Dons, I would suggest they are using the Don's recent success as a way to support the Rovers and restricting the player "budget" would seem that they are maximising the effectiveness of the Dons, but not to their direct benefit. While I have no concrete proof or figures and I am unlikely to every see such material (Tho I wonder if the Freedom of Information act could be used) nothing that is currently happening regarding investment in the playing staff disproves my theory.

Only this week we have heard that players like Gareth Hock are on 80k per year.. The average football league one wage in 2011 (newest stats I could find) was 73k.

We could sign that level of quality (he is a nutter) for what I suspect we are paying for mid-range FL1 players...if of course he is so dedicated to the cause.

Not for one moment suggesting we do a Salford and buy a load of players and hope they gel, but some quality investment in key positions would have left us in a stronger position going in to this season.

Take for example S-O's citing for Andy Kain or the recruitment Policy at Fev or even dare I say Sheffield.

Also at what point did we start to play "soccer" here its Football.....

Thats got nothing to do with his point at all !!!!

He is completely right what is the point saving moiney this year to go for a big buildig spree next year IF WE ARE NOT IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP.

Use some common sense!

If we get relegated he might not be the only one not watching next year, relegation is just a complete waste of the hard work done
by payers and staff in the last 4 seasons.

I know full well what you mean, and to be honest, the start we've had in terms of fixtures has probably been harder than any we've had in recent years.
The Andy Kain signing at Hunslet is an interesting point, IIRC, he was offered a deal at Featherstone prior to everything going up the spout there, and it may be easier for him at Hunslet, ig depends on what he does outside of the game, perhaps its better on his circumstances to play at Hunslet than come to Donny.

What's all the fuss . We have lost 3 games that before the season we new we would struggle to pick any points up from .

What's all the fuss?
Well we have lost our last NINE games.
Another bloody Sunday part 2 in the making.

We were spoilt last season and were sort of expecting a really competitive side again.

If you have been watching the games, you will know we are seriously out of kilter.

We'll turn it around no doubt ....

Friendly games are used as run outs . we were close to getting a win at London and featherstone and it's not the first time we have lost at workington . What are you expecting to go through the season unbeaten

Yeah, I thought we would win every game ...
And yes, I thought we might throw up a gem or two like we did with Wilko last year in the run outs as you call them.

Is crazylegs avatar the most annoying ever. Or is it just me.

Speculation that the Rovers are utilising any funds generated by the Dons is rubbish in my opinion, they are determined to get us into super league, the extra income this would generate would be substantial and potentially on a par with the football operation based on a league one status.
The Dons budget hasn't been used in full is my opinion, I believe Paul wants to use this season to build a solid foundation to possibly go full time next year, my issue is that if we are not careful we could risk relegation and it could ruin the 3 year plan or 5 that Carl referred to at the fans forum prior to the season.
I believe the money was available to go full time this season but the staff didn't think we were ready to do so and needed time to prepare which makes sense, however I believe we should've added a couple of experienced players to give the fans some hope and remain reasonably competitive.
I am not involved within the club and this is just my interpretation of everything we've been told via tweets, Carls weekly interview and at the fans forum.

I think Rugblyman has hit a few nails on the head.

I don't buy into the idea that the Rovers are trying to milk the Dons. Getting us into Super League would create greatly increased revenue and that should be the aim of Club Doncaster.

I also agree with Steve Roebuck in that we have seen very little evidence that Club Doncaster is benefiting the Dons presently. Communications and keeping fans informed seems to have gone backwards. The benefits are probably in reduced costs in backroom administration, which we can't see.

The Dons must have kept a serious amount of their budget back possibly creating a bigger stash of cash to use when they feel it can be better used, perhaps in circumstances similar to those mentioned by Rugblyman.

I doubt we'd be the first side to go full-time in Championship One!



We shouldn't over-react to the start we've made to the season but whichever way we look at it, our situation isn't good and we need to start picking up points soon or else the general air of pessimism will grow quickly.

Paul Cooke knows what he's doing. Whilst I fear relegation is a possibility, I wouldn't want to put anyone else in charge of our fate. Let's get behind him and show him we're on his side.

Jordan, who is the Media guy responsible for the website and the social media side of things can only do so much. If the staff aren't willing to tell him the latest on injuries and the like, then he can't batter it out of them

. I know they aim to improve the communications side of stuff, but thats a long term aim.