Finally, the start of the regular season draws close and the Dons head to Kingston Park to face off against Newcastle Thunder.

The bookies have both teams at the top end of the market to be the regular season winner. Newcastle are 3/1 with both Betfred and Skybet, second favourites behind Oldham with the former and third favourites after Workington & Oldham with the latter.

The Dons are 9/2 third favourites with Betfred and fourth in the betting with Skybet at 5/1.

The Dons commence the 2019 season without the injured second row duo of Brad England, last season's Player of the Season and Scottish International and former Super League player Frankie Mariano.

The Club has stated that a deal has been negotiated with Dual Registration partner Hull FC to provide the calibre of player 'as required by Coach Richard Horne' to support the Club's stated aspiration of promotion to the Championship. To that end a number of Hull FC players have been dual registered with the RFL by Doncaster CEO Carl Hall.

It is worth noting that of those players likely to be available, Liam Harris is currently listed as injured (back) and Lewis Bienek has subsequently joined Batley Bulldogs on loan. It will therefore be interesting to see which players turn out in the 'Blue & Gold' in the early weeks of the season when we play all the promotion candidates with the exception of Oldham.

Last Season: Newcastle 20 Doncaster 22 (Sunday 25 March 201icon_cool.gif
Dons Tries: Charlie Martin, Jack Downs, Sam Doherty, Hakim Miloudi
Dons Conversions: Hakim Miloudi 3

Matty Dawson-Jones out with a season ending knee injury.

I think Hull's poor displays over their first two games will have a big impact on our chances of promotion.

With the loss of MDJ for the season and the likes of Litten and Lane stepping up when given their opportunity i fear given Hull's injuries we will be lucky to see anyone of significant quality.


One plus from a Dons point of view was the poor display from Miloudi,
I know lots of the Hull fans like his off the cuff style of play ,but i think he is classed as too much of a risk to play first team rugby on a weekly basis.


Hull's forwards looked poor and were dominated by the quick plays from McShane , with the Cas forwards making good yards after the collision.


With Wigan up next it looks like its going to be a long season both for FC and ourselves.
For all Adam Pearson's talk , I would be surprised to see Radford in a job come the end of March.

The thing with Miloudi at that level is, Super League based massively on structure. they spend ages, as full time training allows, working on drills and where everyone should be in any situation. Miloudi is very off the cuff so it's hard to drill around that. At our level his off the cuff maneuvres result in chances a decent percentage of times, at Super league where the opposition is faster and smarter, it's a low reward play leaving his team exposed.

It's a balancing act, if he is too bad Hull will release him and we won;t get him. He needs to be good enough to be just out of rach for them. Last he wasn't that, but I;d have him back tomorrow

Agreed Jemmo , at our level he has the class to be head and shoulders above most players in Championship one ,and would be a massive advantage to our promotion hopes if we could secure him for most of our fixtures.

However SL is a totally different ball game and what makes him a star in Champ 1 makes him targeted in SL .

Newcastle's result at Whitehaven today (lost 46-12) was somewhat surprising. Skybet have reacted by shortening Whitehaven to 4/1 for the League One regular season whilst pushing the Dons out to 8/1.

I saw that result too but looking at their team line up today, only 3 players from the side that beat Wakefield 2 weeks ago played today. I read that they had 11 players who have come through their academy play today.

Newcastle played 11 players from their academy , it will be a totally different proposition next weekend.

Was there any announcements at the launch night regarding new signings?

Apparently not

So what happened to the extra players due in before the start of the season?

We don't need them now we've lost two key players to injury...oh wait

Also no news about the two Hull players we were due on season long loans.
Could it be they dont want to come?

Hull need to wait who they have injured and who their coach is gonig to be. Probably

Radford will be gone by April according to half the FC fans I work with.

Poor recruitment and the same old same old game plan every week.

Heaven help them if they lose Connor or Taylor to injury.

RH is at it again saying he intends to use ONE OR TWO Hull players and that he is happy with his squad. And that the numbers in the squad not taken are unfilled because of this Hull player availability. Poppycock I say! The entire arrangement, which had been, in theory, ringfenced, is in fact a shambles in terms of certainty. There is no certainty. He needs to come out and say we will utilise the arrangement to the max, not one of two players. Those one or two players are needed to simply compensate for injuries and bring the numbers back up to somewhere near a workable squad. Then we need MORE than that! He is not in command of our destiny instead reliant on the promise of some kids wet behind the ears and a couple of decent lads like Miloudi, Harris and Litten. As a paying supporter I would like to think we are properly organised. Not just reliant on seeing which players turn up on the day. I think we are badly run and will pay for it at Newcastle. New suggested web name .... Doncaster@thelastminute.com

RH is at it again saying he intends to use ONE OR TWO Hull players and that he is happy with his squad. And that the numbers in the squad not taken are unfilled because of this Hull player availability. Poppycock I say! The entire arrangement, which had been, in theory, ringfenced, is in fact a shambles in terms of certainty. There is no certainty. He needs to come out and say we will utilise the arrangement to the max, not one of two players. Those one or two players are needed to simply compensate for injuries and bring the numbers back up to somewhere near a workable squad. Then we need MORE than that! He is not in command of our destiny instead reliant on the promise of some kids wet behind the ears and a couple of decent lads like Miloudi, Harris and Litten. As a paying supporter I would like to think we are properly organised. Not just reliant on seeing which players turn up on the day. I think we are badly run and will pay for it at Newcastle. New suggested web name .... Doncaster@thelastminute.com