People with a knowledge and understanding of history can look at present developing situations and compare what is happening now to the past. This often gives a good insight to a likely future. So SteveRoebuck’s recent post is very informative and is well grounded.

The young lads who have been signed are fresh out of Superleague academies. Some of them may be stars of the future. The only problem is that we do not know which ones. The videos that we see are of one team of U19s players playing other team of U19s players. Now, most of them will be turning U20. No one knows what they will be like under pressure from experienced players in either League 1 or in Championship. They will be playing against men who are battle hardened. Some promising young players’ ability seems to evaporate under pressure whilst others rise to the challenge. Some young players may not be ready for this challenge for another few years. Also, what of their attitude? Will they be good team players? Who knows?

So Stand-Offish is right when he talks about signing potential. Chewspaker, Moomlight, SteveRoebuck, Wanderer, etc also make this point and they talk of balances between youth and experience. These guys have experiences from their own personal history and they have good words wisdom to offer. The management of Donny would do well to listen.

Most Championship clubs will take on youngsters to develop them during training and try them out against weaker clubs. Surely no Championship club in its right mind will allow its future to be determined by the exploits of inexperienced youth. After all, no Championship club wants to be relegated to League 1.

League 1 is a bit different. This gives talented younger inexperienced players a good chance to develop and provide them with a route into Championship and beyond. Good experienced players also play here by personal choice.

Now that we are relegated to League 1, C Hall talks about bouncing back into Championship. In reality there are constraining financial budget issues. So G Thornton is a bit more cautious. He says, “[iit will not be a given that we will be straight back up but we will be challenging[/i”. He knows the realities of League 1. After all, he was the Championship coach at York City Knights when they were relegated to League 1.

From the existing squad so far, we have signed only three fully experienced players – K Kesik, L Welham and T Carr. Of these three, an earlier post seemed to question if L Welham has signed. If he has, then this is odd as it is not yet posted on Donny’s site. A new experienced player who has signed is M Castle. However, it is suggested by G Thornton that P Cooke gave M Castle the push. No reason is given for this.

Two of the signings from last year’s intake have re-signed. So I guess that P Cooke was right about these two.

So far, five new youngsters have been signed. How will they do? We do not know. Time will tell.

It seems that few of our existing squad will be with us next season. Some of the earlier posts here suggest that they are off to pastures new. This is a pity. I believe that they are a very good squad of players who were somehow or other let down by management. After all, when G Thornton took over earlier this year he said, “[iGood players cannot become bad players overnight[/i”.

We've all been looking for a few more answers as to why the 2015 season has been so bad. The club haven't really wanted to tell us the details - preferring to look forward rather than look back.

In the Free Press article on Thursday 17th September, Carl revealed something that hadn't previously been disclosed:

“As was the case with Paul Cooke and Tony Miller before him, recruitment is all in the hands of head coach Gary Thornton."

This suggests PC had total control over the squad for 2015 and was happy with the side he'd put together. Was it PC's judgement that was wrong, as opposed to the club not making funds available?

Why don't they just explain that then if that's the case.
Not a difficult statement to make?

Double Movement raised an interesting issue on signing authority.

Although C Hall stated, [i“As was the case with Paul Cooke and Tony Miller before him, recruitment is all in the hands of head coach Gary Thornton”[/i. He also went on to say, [i“Gary, …, has full say on who he wants to bring to the club and my only role is to make it happen if I can and to decide whether the players fit into my budget”[/i. So it is being made clear that whilst Gary has a big say in what he wants, he has to work within the financial budget constraints. So, because of the money, C Hall has the final say. It is a bit like wanting a sirloin steak, but you can afford only a couple of sausages.

Looking at this article, the RFL have cut the money to Donny by £125,000. The owners are putting some money in, and C Hall is fundraising.

However, the point that Double Movement raises is an interesting one, for mid-season on the 17th July 2014, we were introduced to a new 20 year old ex rugby union Leicester Tigers player. The club write up sounded very good. The reality was different. P Dunn’s tackling was good, but his positional sense and lack of game awareness was there for all to see. Who selected P Dunn? Given his clear lack of knowledge of Rugby League, why was not given more training before being allowed to play at Championship level?

Just because he played Union, it is no guarantee that he could play League. It is a bit like expecting someone to play badminton just because they can play tennis - or expecting someone to play chess because they can play draughts.

Coming back now to P Cooke, like G Thornton, I cannot see him having total control. At the 2015 squad selection time, many fans seemed to be puzzled over the total lack of experienced new players. We do not know the budget constraints that were placed on P Cooke. Also, we may have expected an availability of good Hull FC players to fill any breach. These may be two of the management errors – too many inexperienced youth and a miscalculation on the availability of good dual reg players.

Looking back to the start of 2015, Stand-Offish said, [i“With all these youngsters we must have the most unpredictable team in the division. Forrest Gump mode ... The Dons are like a box of chocolates ... you never know what you're gonna get.”[/i

Also, Onedon wrote, [i“Hope we have enough experience to avoid the struggle of relegation.”[/i He also stated, [i“Looks like we will be relying heavily on D/R.”
[/i

Love it to bits that post. You would have to be completly wet behind the ears not to grasp the thought process behind it. The question once again is about trust, and for me it just enforces my lack of faith in the financial side of running the Dons hence the reluctance to go for a couple of season tickets or anything to do with the alleged squad builder fund.

The financial side of things will probably always mean that the club have the final say on who we can sign but I think the statement made by Carl lowers the possibility that there was some cunning master plan to tread water in 2015 with the club insisting that we went for youth.

We're never going to know how much the club's budget was, or which players they refused to sign (that PC wanted) because they were deemed to be too expensive, or be able to compare our budget to those of our rivals. All we have been told is that the 2015 budget was the biggest ever in the club's history ... which would make them very expensive sausages!

I felt the implications of what Carl said could (and should) have been made public before now. Even though it's not the definitive answer as to why this season went wrong, it does help us to understand the situation a little better. More clarity would also be helpful but I doubt it will be forthcoming.

My guess is that we were also relying heavily on Hull to plug any gaps we had, and that didn't happen. All the top clubs in the Championship kept away from DR. It creates a huge instability in knowing who is going to be available from week to week. I hope one of the lessons we have learned from this season is that we now recognise that we must take responsibility for ourselves. We cannot rely on Hull, or anyone else, to bail us out if times get tough.

We probably all feel a sense of relief that this season is drawing to a close. Let's hope we hear some more positive news of signings soon. I would expect more names to be revealed next week as many players will have played their last game for their current clubs this weekend.