Fans Panel Meeting Thursday 10th January 2019 : Mon Jan 07, 2019 3:05 pm  

There's a Fans Panel Meeting this Thursday. Has anyone got any questions they'd like asking?

Here are the questions I've got lined up:

1) At the last meeting we were told there were 2 to 3 signings likely and those players had been playing Super League last season. Are we any further forward with those?

2) Are we still intending to sign 2 Hull players on season long loans? If so, can they be named?

3) There are presently 18 players in our squad. Without relying on Hull to plug the gaps, we seem light on numbers. How do Carl and Richard feel about this?

4) As we're trying to improve the game day experience for fans, this was not helped by three of our four trialists not having shirt numbers listed on the scoreboard last Sunday. Had Ryan Dixon not won Man Of The Match, I wouldn't have known who number 30 was. Why was the Hull squad not listed on the main scoreboard? I feel we let the Hull fans down as they deserved to know who was playing and what their shirt numbers were.

I too wanted to know who all the Hull players were but I was left wondering. When the PA announcement was made, the Hull players were announced as wearing 1 to 17 but that wasn't the case. I tried to scribble down their names but wasn't quick enough. Thankfully quite a lot had names on their shirts but not all of them. I'm sure a lot of the travelling Hull fans were left somewhat in the dark too. They turned out in large numbers and I feel we could have done more to make their day out a better experience.

Why did we not do a better job on this?

5) Quite a lot of Dons fans were turning up at the turnstiles believing they could pay at the gate. It would have been helpful if the communications sent out by the club had made it clear that it was an all ticket game. Can we make sure this is made clear for the Leeds and London games?

Please add your questions below and I'll ask them at the meeting on Thursday.

Thanks - Mike Lindley

Re: Fans Panel Meeting Thursday 10th January 2019 : Mon Jan 07, 2019 4:14 pm  

I have a question Mike ....
But first I too would like to comment on yesterday's less than satisfactory production.
As soon as the match finished the score disappeared from the main graphics scoreboard to be replaced by some advertising, which was of little interest to Hull fans.
I had to ask a couple of the Hull fans what the final score was.
Well quite frankly I lost count and interest.

My question is 'why is the half time draw not related to the number of tickets sold?'
They will say it is I bet.
It is a measly £50 when it used to be £100.
Now I can understand why it may have dropped in the hard times, but we had 1170 people yesterday.
It just looks to be a lazy, convenient habit we have fallen into.

Re: Fans Panel Meeting Thursday 10th January 2019 : Tue Jan 08, 2019 9:15 am  

What makes the coach and staff believe that relying on DR again this season will work when it didn’t last season. We have 18 players, some who are out injuried, no signings in nearly 3 months. Can they understand why fans are concerned and if so what are they going to do to address this.... thanks

Re: Fans Panel Meeting Thursday 10th January 2019 : Tue Jan 08, 2019 10:48 am  

Returning Don wrote:

What makes the coach and staff believe that relying on DR again this season will work when it didn’t last season. We have 18 players, some who are out injuried, no signings in nearly 3 months. Can they understand why fans are concerned and if so what are they going to do to address this.... thanks

So how much would we all be willing to bet this question gets sidestepped or handwaved away by the people in charge - Again?

At the moment I can't decided what is the biggest shambles brexit or our club.

Re: Fans Panel Meeting Thursday 10th January 2019 : Tue Jan 08, 2019 11:03 am  

I would like the question to be asked are these "Loan players" going to be ours for the full season or will it be a repeat of the situation with Jez Litten and Jordan Lane from last year, where we were told they were season-long loans but in fact just dual reg players who we couldn't count on to be available week on week.

I also seem to remember a similar situation occurring when we signed James Clare from Cas.

Also I would echo "Returning Don's" question but with a wider scope that the relaince on Dual Reg and lack of investment in perminant signings, hindered Paul Cooke final year in charge, all of Gary Thornton's tenure and is now having a negative impact on Richard Horne's ability to gain promotion, with that in mind what different this year?

Re: Fans Panel Meeting Thursday 10th January 2019 : Tue Jan 08, 2019 12:52 pm  

I know we had players missing on Sunday but we were totally out classed by what is effectively Hulls kids with a few old heads thrown in.

With a paper thin squad of players, and with two or three long term injuries already sustained ( Don't know how true this is but rumour in the bar after the game) RH must be happy that we are going to sign a number of Hull players on loan ,and have the pick of dual reg when we need them to paper over the cracks.

This is all well and good , but we need assurances that we are not going to be hung out to dry like we were last season.

All the players we had from Hull last season played their part , but its no good getting players like Litten and Miloudi when your playing West Wales and no-one when your away at Workington in a promotion decider with three or four of your squad injured.

Carl cannot come out with the same old " five year plan" guff again this year if the team fail to perform , fingers crossed we are promotion challangers but i along with quite alot more envisage another year of the also-rans.

Re: Fans Panel Meeting Thursday 10th January 2019 : Tue Jan 08, 2019 3:09 pm  

Carl seems more interested in other projects than the Dons currently. Let’s hope Leeds only bring their under 16s on Sunday as another hammering looks instore.

Re: Fans Panel Meeting Thursday 10th January 2019 : Wed Jan 09, 2019 12:53 am  

Thanks for the questions. The meeting starts at 6pm on Thursday. If anyone has other questions, could you please post them on here no later than 4pm Thursday.

I put 4pm because I'm probably the only man in Britain who doesn't have a mobile phone! I'll need to pick the questions up on my computer before leaving home.

Thanks - Mike.

Re: Fans Panel Meeting Thursday 10th January 2019 : Thu Jan 10, 2019 8:06 pm  

The meeting took place on Thursday 10th January as planned.

The minutes of the meeting will be published tomorrow when the club will be making a formal announcement. The announcement will answer the main concerns of fans raised in the questions recently submitted.

After feeling somewhat downbeat after the events on Sunday, I left the meeting this evening feeling reassured. The shortcomings of the past appear to have been addressed. I can't say any more at this stage until the formal announcement is made tomorrow but I hope you too will also be reassured by tomorrow's statement.

I'll post the minutes of the meeting on here tomorrow as soon as Jane Keightley has typed them up.

Re: Fans Panel Meeting Thursday 10th January 2019 : Thu Jan 10, 2019 9:22 pm  

Will the announcement tell us that Keightley has come out of special measures?