Re: Announcement expected? : Mon Nov 26, 2018 5:57 pm  

bonaire wrote:

I would expect one of Lewis Bienek or Levy Nzoungou to be made available to Doncaster for the start of the season and once Green and Bowden are fully fit then possibly both players.Both young but big lads with plenty of pace.
I said before that with the reserve match issue Hull now face then it will work in Doncasters favour both as D/R and loans as players like Miloudi,Logan,Sanderson,Litten will all be pushed out to play regularly.
I would also expect some of the more experienced fringe players especially forwards to be playing D/R at Doncaster

Thanks Bonaire, here's hoping that Hull have good year and you remain relativity injury free (we appear to be relying on that)

Re: Announcement expected? : Mon Nov 26, 2018 10:11 pm  

My and my brother both got season tickets last year after a long time without one. So far this year he’s had a letter reminding him to renew, a email and text message from Carl hall, a phone call from a player and countless other emails, he’s finally give in and renewed... I’ve had nothing !!

Re: Announcement expected? : Mon Nov 26, 2018 10:15 pm  

It was explained in the meeting that our budget for next season has been increased. We have less players than last season, signed no one of any note and now our coach is saying he’s happy with what he’s got. Where is this extra budget being spent ?? Everyone can see we are 3/4 real quality additions short apart from those involved at the club.

Re: Announcement expected? : Mon Nov 26, 2018 11:20 pm  

Have you ever thought the club may have no spare money to sign many new players so they use the dual reg & loan system.

Re: Announcement expected? : Tue Nov 27, 2018 12:23 am  

Very much so ... hence my Steptoe and Son references.
Hence RH being 'happy' because it is Hobson's choice.

Re: Announcement expected? : Tue Nov 27, 2018 9:22 am  

GeoffRoebuck wrote:

Have you ever thought the club may have no spare money to sign many new players so they use the dual reg & loan system.

Then why did they say the budget has been increased then.... does anyone know if the players get paid weekly or like the old days still just get appearance fees and win bonuses etc

Re: Announcement expected? : Tue Nov 27, 2018 10:58 am  

Only 5 weeks and 5 days to the first game ...
COYD

Re: Announcement expected? : Tue Nov 27, 2018 11:17 am  

Returning Don wrote:

Then why did they say the budget has been increased then.... does anyone know if the players get paid weekly or like the old days still just get appearance fees and win bonuses etc

Players' wages is never a subject that is discussed at any of the meetings I've been to. However I do seem to recall a few years ago that the policy was to pay players appearance money only but I'm sure this changed around the time of our second season in this division after last getting relegated.

At the last meeting, Gavin Baldwin said the budget had been increased for the forthcoming season. Without seeing spreadsheets showing who gets what, compared to who got what last year and the year before, we're never going to see conclusive proof that this is the case but I have much respect for Gavin Baldwin and I have absolutely no reason to believe that what he has said isn't true.

The way I see it is that the Dons probably have to fight off competition from Championship clubs in order to be able to keep quite a lot of the players we have. Charlie Martin decided to leave to go to a Championship club. We have two battles: one is that some players want to play at the highest level possible (perhaps Ross Osborne was an example of this too) and we can't keep them no matter how much we offer to pay them, and secondly players have to look after themselves and probably go where the best offer is. With agents pulling strings, I would imagine there's plenty of competition for the signatures of the better players - this will drive up costs for clubs.

I don't know, I'm just guessing, but we maybe had to increase the wages of the players we've presently got in order to be able to keep them? Hence we used up more money this time around compared to last for these reasons. Don't forget, the Championship clubs get considerably more RFL 'central funding' than we do. This gives them a clear advantage as their 'starting pot' is much bigger.

What's my best guess as to where were at recruitment-wise? Even though Richard Horne allegedly said something different in the press to the info we got from last week's fans meeting, I would still take it the meeting info was correct:

CH advised that we currently have a squad of 18, we WILL have 2/3 significant new additions before the start of the season all currently at Super League Clubs, 2 players on trial and possible 2 from Bentley and Toll Bar

If we're going to sign 2 or 3 players who are currently at Super League clubs, this should go some way to allaying our fears that we're not building on the squad we've got.

With regards to Hull players, I would imagine that the final first team 'pecking order' at Hull will be taking place over the next month or so with Richard Horne liaising with Lee Radford to see who might benefit from time at Donny, and who could do a good job for us. Things are clearly fluid on this front at the moment but everything should start to fit into place over the next six weeks or so.

Re: Announcement expected? : Thu Nov 29, 2018 9:44 pm  

Just 2 days to go before the season ticket deadline according to the website. Surely anyone with half a brain would know sales would improve with signings can we not even announce the signings of the 2 from tollbar or wherever it wss and if we are to definitely have 2/3 super league players by the start of the season do we not even have 1 we can announce?

It just blows my mind that the club genuinely seem to expect people to get excited for next year on the back of absolutely nothing.

Re: Announcement expected? : Thu Nov 29, 2018 10:42 pm  

AdamH wrote:

Just 2 days to go before the season ticket deadline according to the website. Surely anyone with half a brain would know sales would improve with signings can we not even announce the signings of the 2 from tollbar or wherever it wss and if we are to definitely have 2/3 super league players by the start of the season do we not even have 1 we can announce?

It just blows my mind that the club genuinely seem to expect people to get excited for next year on the back of absolutely nothing.

I'm 60. I'm an old fossil. I run my own business but I have to admit that I really don't understand marketing. What I think ought to work, often doesn't work and the marketing gimmicks the public get taken in by make me run a mile.

It seems like the club have a different strategy this season as they're keeping things under wraps, as opposed to last year when everything was announced early.

I think that everyone who is likely to buy a season ticket will already have bought one. I doubt there'll be any 'last two days before the deadline' scampering to form orderly queues at the Keepmoat.

If the new signings are likely to put bums on seats, does it make sense to publish their names now to bring in more people at the discount price? Perhaps not.

I don't honestly think many more season tickets will be sold before the season starts whichever way the Dons' commercial department decide to do it. Even if we signed a well known Super League player, I still don't see the good people of Doncaster suddenly becoming converts. The only way we'll have any chance of significantly increasing our fan base is to get out of this league and be competitive at the top end of the Championship.... but I'm still not convinced we'd get crowds near to 2,000 even in those circumstances.

From our point of view (the loyal fans) I do understand what you're saying Adam with regards to not knowing who the new signings are. It would be nice if we got to know sooner rather than later.