Gary Thornton "I'm massively disappointed."*
Doncaster RLFC head coach Gary Thornton spoke to the official website following Sunday’s defeat at London Broncos.

*Will that be because they can't even get the day right in the report Gary?

It's understandable though ... they have written 'following Sunday’s defeat' so many times before.

When you read stuff like that, one question comes straight to mind, and it's this ........." What are YOU going to do about it then?"

Could you manage the PR side of being a coach?

Could you come up with pearls like these?

"We need to learn to be a bit smarter."
"We need to learn to stop giving silly penalties away."
"We need to speed up the play the ball."
"We need to show more passion."
"We need to just be more patient."
"We need to blah blah blah ...you fill in the dross."
etc
etc

Then you too could handle the PR side of coaching ...... you may be able to spin a rugby ball but can you handle the PR spin and make it seem like you're actually doing something about the issues when your not?

Unless you actually demonstrate to the players how to do these things AND enforce them ... then it's all just platitude spinning.
Gizz a job, I could do that!

Carl put on Twitter this morning that clarks also been playing with a broken wrist!

And that my photogenic friend and club apologist is where you are totally wrong.
I would deal in specifics and I would spell out exactly how I would approach this mess ... instead of saying I was disappointed.
It is his job and one he is making a pig's ear of.
Harsh maybe ...but a fact.

I am not sure how much longer he can dine out on the fact that he managed a narrow win at home to the second worst side in the division among numerous defeats.

Are you stalking me by the way, I seem to be the beneficiary of a fair bit of your bile.
Am thinking I am not your favourite flavour

Not sure what he is supposed to put...

''We were all but relegated when I took over, most of the guys know they are either moving on wandering if being offered contracts.
I have a thread bare squad that I took on, with no end of injuries, a DR reg with Hull that I will likely have to keep even IF I don't want.... Oh and tried to pull some players in but tbh nobody wants to come as we are screwed....
Still we got a day out...''

Most coaches don't come out and say what they really feel as at end of day Board and Players tend to have more sway...

PC said the same script for blooming months AS did TM win or lose, he mentioned discipline every week and nothing changed.

Let's accept where we are at - and give him off season to recruit and put in his methods, who else is going to come here?
I will continue to attend but for first time in prob 8 years I wont be renewing any of the family season tickets, and sadly that is due to errors the club has made this season, which they are apparently fully aware of....that way if it continues I can put my very hard earned cash elsewhere on a weekend...

IMO

The numbers show for each coach the "no. of games", "the points difference for these games", and finally "the average points difference per game".

So P Cooke was the coach for 11 games, the points diffential was -207 and the average points diffential per game was -18.8.

P Cooke 11 -207 -18.8
C Hall 1 -18 -18.0
T Miller 3 -52 -17.3
G Thornton 8 -292 -36.5

Total 23 -569 -24.7

Can anyone help to expain why these figures are like this?

Well it looks ike we were consistently bad until we got our latest coach and now we are twice as bad ... but I am sure that's not the reason.

In the last eight games, the Gary Thornton era, we've played Bradford, Featherstone, Halifax and Leigh, three of the four teams now in the Middle 8s. Three of those four games have been away too.

The points differences in those games were: -66, -40, -52, and -56.

In the reverse fixtures, played earlier in the season (probably on pitches less conducive to free-flowing open rugby, of which the Featherstone home game springs to mind in particular) the points differences were: -18, -7, -36 and -36.

The fixtures have certainly been tougher during the last eight games than at any other point during the season. The players' belief will have waned as the season has gone on, so confidence will have been lower, making life more difficult too.

Is there a case for saying Gary Thornton is a worse coach than everyone else based on these results? No. The guy inherited a squad that was shot to pieces. He has basically found himself in probably the most unenviable place in rugby league at the moment.

It's quite easy to get into a mess quickly, as we've done this season, but it's a lot harder to get out of it!

The guy needs to be given time to put his own squad together before we can judge him fairly.

Well even this side would win half their games in the division below next season.

If they were kept together, which they won't be.

So he can't really do a lot worse, things can only improve.
It's relative though ... the middle of that division would NOT be acceptable.

He is going to get his chance, no doubt, and yeah it's only fair to judge him on that next year.

But if we are table-topping I will be gobsmacked,impressed and would consider coming back on board.
Recruitment so far has been sticking plaster stuff by Thornton, I expect better before I even think about it.
COYD

Explain them, no. But in fairness only one of those set of stats has any real relevance.

Paul Cooke was in charge last season and was party to the recruitment pre-Season. For me his stats are valid, his team effectively.

The Carl Hall and Tony Miller stats are pretty meaningless considering the sample size and the position the Club was in at the time.

With regard to Gary Thornton, and has been pointed out, he joined a Club in turmoil and a set of players whose confidence would have been at an all-time low. Can he be fairly judged on those fixtures alone, probably not.

I will reserve judgement until we are a couple of months into the new season.

I get where you are coming from but in truth how many half-decent players would have become available in the last couple of months?

Very few in truth with Clubs reaching the business end of the season and only releasing players who never get a game (McLocklan and Wright from Dewsbury as examples). The only other option being players out of the game (e.g. Mennell).



Agreed, although I'm with you in that we have to be up there from the off.

The alarming facts with all these stats for this season is that they have been gained under four different coaches & lots of players but the management team of the club as remained the same all season & looks like carrying on in to next season.