Quote: Keith Lard's Dog "Good point Rupertbear.
After all the pre season hype from CH about " the largest budget ","going for promotion" ,"we need to get out of this division bla bla bla the season has been an embarrassing failure.
We need to face facts, we are a poor team in a poor division where the standard of rugby is bordering on amateur and we are still only a mid table side.
A team that snatches defeat from the hand of victory, with a CEO that is only too happy to tell loyal fans that its wrong to criticize when they have paid their hard earned cash to watch games thrown away through silly penalties and lack of discipline.
Crowds are dropping as people find other things to do on a Sunday, than pay £15 to watch paint dry.
I have held a season ticket since the great days at Tattersfield, but chose to pay as I went this year.
That is something I have not regretted , even though I have attended all but two home games this year , i will be doing the same next year unless I am convinced other wise.
GT was appointed as he was "The man with the knowledge of the division" and what did he bring............Poor player recruitment, boring rugby and disappointed.
CH said it was GT's team and he had nothing to do with the selection but as I see it he was the man who appointed the man that was going to ensure our trips to the rugby wilderness would be short lived.
Now all we receive is the drivel from "The dugout".
For the love of God please knock this tripe on the head because you are turning the club in to a laughing stock.
Excuse after excuse and never a straight answer given, then calling fans for voicing an opinion.
I think a job in politics beckons Mr Hall when his tenure in RL is over ,which with any luck will be after next weeks game.
Club Doncaster need to look at the Dons and decide if they want the club to move forward with a new CEO or leave it to die a slow painful death under the currant one.
Carl thanks for all you have done ,but it really is time to go.'"
I agree that we’re probably only a mid-table side (perhaps more accurately described as a top eight team) but I don’t think the standard of rugby is poor when the top eight teams play each other. The games against the bottom half teams are often one-sided and do very little to attract fans to matches.
I understand that people have a choice of many different things to do on a Sunday. All clubs are struggling to keep their supporters. The Newcastle game was very tense with everyone on the edge of their seats most of the time. The result wasn’t the right one but the game was certainly entertaining.
I’ve had a season ticket since the bad old days at Tattersfield, which then included the great days at Tattersfield as well. I’m glad I never gave up on the club. If the loyal few of us had walked away in the late 1970s and the early 1980s there may not have been a club around in the late 80s and early 90s for everyone to enjoy. I sincerely believe that the best way to help bring success back to the club now is for us to all stick together and try to help the club move forwards.
I’m sure someone else on here called Carl a politician recently. If Carl was a politician he wouldn’t have said some of the things he’s said on In The Dugout. He would act much more diplomatically. Questions asked don’t always get thorough answers. He’s taken me to task on more than one occasion for asking what he feels are silly, inappropriate questions, but when he’s done that I’ve talked to him directly and we’ve sorted things out in a constructive and friendly way. The guy’s human and has a rant from time to time. His misdemeanours are not a hanging offence. We need to work with him to help make things better.
Here’s my overview of Carl’s performance:
It was an inspired move by Carl to bring in Paul Cooke. We finished 4th in the Championship in 2014 under PCs guidance.
A poor recruitment strategy resulted in an awful 2015 when we got relegated. Paul Cooke was voted coach of the year in 2014 and most of the fans respected him. This probably showed that even good coaches can make mistakes and get things wrong.
GT was appointed to take over the failing team but couldn’t stop us from getting relegated in 2015; the damage had already been done with poor recruitment.
GT was then correctly given a full season in charge with his own players recruited. We reached the play-offs but got soundly beaten at Barrow. It wasn’t the greatest of achievements, the rugby we were playing was quite one dimensional and boring, but we seemed to be turning a corner and had stopped the decline. GT was given another chance to rebuild for the 2017 season.
After a poor started to 2017, GT was sacked. As promotion was the aim, we were falling short of that target. I believe this was quite a decisive move by Carl and Club Doncaster.
A young, ambitious coach was brought in, someone who could probably be compared to Paul Cooke, apart from the fact that he wasn’t out there on the field guiding the team around. Richard Horne’s got experience of playing at the highest level and played in the backs. The coaches who tend to play the most attractive rugby are usually ex-backs.
It was unrealistic to expect GT to turnaround the Paul Cooke era overnight, it was similarly unrealistic to think Richard Horne could put right all the GT wrongs. He’s not been able to but it would be unfair to hold that against him.
In summary, I believe Carl has acted decisively when things have gone wrong and replaced two coaches. He made a mistake in appointing GT but we need to remember that GT had won this league with York. With hindsight, we can all see it was a bad decision.
Carl’s got things wrong with some of the things he’s said and done on In The Dugout but at least he doesn’t hide away behind his office desk. He’s always willing to talk to any of us. Other structures are being put in place off the field to help the longer-term prospects of the club.
I do not quite see how Carl seems to be the arch villain. He has done his job effectively for the most part with a few errors along the way. He remains passionate about the club and his enthusiasm to get things right seems greater now than ever before.
I do not agree with the suggestions the club is an embarrassment. The club was an embarrassment when we were being filmed for Another Bloody Sunday. The club was an embarrassment when it went bankrupt when we reached the big league. The same applies when we went into administration after the John Wright years. It was an embarrassment when Craig Harrison and his business partner pulled out after getting the club promoted.
At the moment we are under-achieving, not an embarrassment. With good recruitment in the off-season, there is no reason to believe we can’t bounce back in 2018 and be very serious contenders for promotion.
It should also be remembered that the levels of investment required for this to happen are because of Club Doncaster. If we were relying on income from gate receipts alone to fund the team, I’m sure we’d be in a much worse situation. Or maybe we could try to find a man with money who is prepared to back us until he either runs out of cash or decides to leave us in a financial black hole?
I would urge all fans to get behind Club Doncaster, Carl, and Richard Horne because we all need to be strong together. Let's make suggestions for changes and improvements and help the club get to where we all want it to be.
