I felt quite sad sitting at the Cas game last Sunday seeing a crowd of about 1500 with perhaps only 300 to 400 maximum from Donny. The Cas fans travelled in numbers to see their team play a side two divisions below them.

Are the people of Donny out of love with rugby because we've been stuck in this league for too long with the Five Year Plan to get to Super League not achieved, or is there never going to be a decent fanbase in the town?

I hope it's a chicken and egg situation and that if we do become successful the people of Donny will get behind the club.

I sincerely hope the Dons fans outnumber the Thornhill fans by a considerable margin this weekend or else Sunday will be another sad day.

I imagine that on the field, providing we play like we did in the second half last Sunday, we shouldn't be victims of a cup upset. We have creative players aplenty and that should be good enough to see us home.

My general concern is similar to those I've had for the last four or five years, we don't seem to have enough size in the front row to really overpower teams.There seems to be a lot of responsibilty on Zac this season. He had a really good game last week but he won't be able to do everything on his own.

I hope the prop Jordan Seaman from Bentley gets another chance as he worked hard and ran enthusiastically.

Who's going on Sunday?

Think he will be cup tied .

Yep, he will be cup tied. I'd forgotten about that. The squad has been announced:

Initial reaction to the game.
Officials. Thought the ref had a reasonable game but the touch judges/assistant refs, were below par.
Thornhill. Had some spells of good rugby and probably deserved a try, however their good spells were too few and far between and they allowed their frustration to too towards the fore in the dieing minutes.
The Don's. Some silly mistakes which need to be cut out. Good bits in part but not often enough. It felt to me we were trying to score or make the expansive pass that's not always on. Zac has taken the mantle of enforcer but he needs to keep on the right side of the rules/referees.
Overall hopeful for the regular season ahead, but then we always are before a league games been played!

Thought I'd give the Dons a go today as they have some new players on view. I'm sorry to say it's going to be another season without promotion as I thought it was a poor performance today even though Thornhill put in a spirited showing. Struggled to break down the Thornhill defence and once again apart from Zac Braham, lacked the power and brute force in the front row. Until this is addressed the Dons will continue to struggle. Very disappointing and unless there's an improvement I won't be bothering again. By the way what's happened to those two possible big signings Carl Hall mentioned in his last address to fans. Not to mention the lack of information on Jordie Hedges and Watson Boas. Communication still as poor as always.

I was disappointed with our style of play yesterday , Thornhill were very one dimensional and I feel if we had moved the ball around more to the edges we would have had more success.
I feel we need more size in the front row , I thought Fella and Ruan went well but could be dominated by more experienced forwards when the season gets in full swing.

Silly errors need to be cut out ,errors which will cost us against better sides but it is still early days.

Credit to Thornhill they came and had a go but never really moved away from five drives and a kick rugby.

I saw Watson at the game but I think he only arrived back to the UK this week so in reality was never going to feature.

Overall a wins a win but we must do better.

Yesterday was played very much like a preseason friendly, we looked very rusty with the ball, however we defended well against a team that ran it in well most of the game. We scrambled on our own try line excellently on a few occasion stopping certain tries. Braham and Fella both looked good to me, but we desperately need other props.

I agree with what others have written including Tatty's comments about poor communications.

I firmly believe that over the years we have not managed to get promoted from this league because our forwards haven't been dominant enough. We can overcome the lesser sides because our backs are creative and skillful; when it comes to the better teams in the league we are vulnerable.

Unless we get a couple more props in to address that issue, I fear we could well remain vulnerable again.

The draw for the next two rounds in on BBC at 6pm tonight:

[urlhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/rugby-league/60026889[/url

Rochdale Mayfield v Doncaster 12/13 Feb.

Winners at home to Whitehaven two weeks later.

Didn't go to either game ....Cas because to me I have had enough of that pointless crap against much better sides.
Thornhill....because I have just had an ankle operation.

My views on the managerial set up at the Dons is well documented and so apart from me reiterating that I think they are inarticulate nobodies enough said.

I saw a couple of clips on the Bulls site and John Kear speaking.
Here we have the antithesis of what we have at the Dons...
Kear analyses and has an articulate view of his vision of rugby.
Win, lose or draw I feel Kear is in charge, he has a plan, knows what he is doing.
We however have soundbites and cliches and nothing more revealing than what we already saw with our own eyes.

I have a season ticket and will attend when I can travel, but I have read nothing other than the usual 'get behind the lads' stuff which I find depressingly unhelpful.
It is not about supporters, we will support at games. It is about team progression.
I don't see us being the stand-out unit in League 1.

I totally agree, unless we have more quality players coming in I think we are looking at another season of mid table mediocrity .

I think we will struggle Saturday against Mayfield given it will likely to be a very heavy pitch and they will be more than up for the fight.

Our squad again looks very light , it is proven time and again that in League 1 a large pack of dominant forwards is the way to go , yet we still persist with back rowers and filling the front row spots.

On numerous occasions last season we were dominated in the pack and now we have lost Douglas and Johnson I fear we will be so again.
I know we are not up to speed with our season six weeks away but nothing less than a win Saturday is acceptable.
If the club is to have any credibility then they need to put down a marker of intent.

I wrote earlier in this thread that I believe the main reason we've not been able to get out of this league is that we are unable to dominate in the forwards against the better teams in the league. We don't have enough size. I agree with KLD's comments.

We can get on top of the lesser sides by being mobile and throwing it about.

This lack of size is a problem that Richard Horne either can't see, doesn't agree with, or isn't able to bring in the right players to get it sorted.

You only have to look at the last three sides promoted to the Championship ,three sides from Cumbria and all with dominant packs with more strong ball carriers coming on to rotate so the opposition cannot rest.

Ross Pelitier was devastating when fit but I feel lacked the motivation to get himself in top shape to prove his worth.
Douglas was the total opposite , willing to carry and do the hard yards needed to set the platform for the backs to play.
It was no coincidence that when he was on the front foot we played well.

I know in Super League most players from 1 to 13 are a hybrid of /back rower however we are not in Super League and as is proven time and again power beats pace in the lower divisions.

They seek him here, they seek him there but once again Carl Hall is nowhere. Instead of an update on Boas, Hedges or in fact trying to sign some props all we get is some news about a development off the pitch. There's no wonder supporters are losing interest.

The Thornhill player subject to 4 citations from the Cup game has received a 12 month ban

My lad reminded me that Gary (Wanderer) said that he was not going this season...one reason being the crappy way the club fail to keep supporters in the loop...
So Scott who was a duo with Gary is going on his own.
Now Gary was a fixture at Dons home games and had an involvement with the fans supporters panel at one time.
If Gary can drop the Dons because he has evaluated his time is better spent elsewhere then the writing is on the wall.
I packed in half way through last season after that y performance vs Hunslet and never went back.
I have bought a season ticket and will have another look this time but am not really that bothered anymore.
I am certainly not bothered about excuses and the same old same old.
I really find it hard to divorce the Dons from the crapness that is Club Doncaster and the Rovers.
Great stadium... set up.
But let's get behind the lads....

I stopped going to the Fans Panel Meetings around the same time as Wanderer. I think Gary attended one more after I stopped going. The meetings were online at the time.

I first started going to Tattersfield in the 1970s and never thought I’d get to a point where I’d question whether to buy a season ticket. I questioned whether to buy one this season.

I’ve decided to detach myself from the politics as this was stopping my enjoyment. The League One structure is awful – there are too few games. Spending half the summer with no home games doesn’t help either. The atmosphere at games is poor as the players are on the wrong side of the pitch to the fans. The large scoreboard is the most annoying piece of kit ever, as they use font size four so no one can read it.

Communications with fans remains poor. Whatever happened to Danny Bravo, Ryan Dixon, Sam Doherty and Keiron Lawton, for example? As fans, we like to feel a connection with the players we are supporting and with the coach as well.

When we used to have “In the Dug Out” every Friday, it gave us something to look forward to and served as part of the build up to the weekend match. I pressed for this to return (possibly in a different form) but it never happened.

I’ve no doubt Carl and the backroom team work very hard to keep the show on the road and I respect them for that but there are so many simple things that could be done better to make supporters feel valued and have a much better game day experience.

I did buy a season ticket (just before the Thornhill game) but I was asking myself questions right up to the last minute. It is worrying that staunch supporters like Gary and I can question whether to carry on being Dons’ fans.

My hopes going forward are that we can get out of this division, build on the momentum of the World Cup matches being in town, grow our fan base and see sufficient money invested in the club should we get to the Championship. I suspect getting out of this league will be the easy bit (and we’ve struggled to do that) staying in the Championship would be the hard part.

I see going to the Dons nowadays as a day out watching a bit of sport with having a pint or two....
I am not sure which takes pole position.
I do not expect anything by way of promotion and if they want to run the club in the amateurish way they do, it's their club, let them get on with it.
The fact that there is little written on here nowadays shows people don't think the Dons are worth it....
And they would be right the Dons aren't ...the players are however.
Come on you players...COYP