Toulouse were poor?
That's a comfort after shipping 46 points.
The idea was to compete and challenge in this division, which is not finished yet and we may
get promoted.

Toulouse are better than the rest and Rochdale have a better thing going with Warrington than we have with Hull.

Silly suggestions like get a billionaire and sack the coach aren't really helpful.

What would I do?
Put all my effort intointo improving our defence ... a reduction by only ten points a game would really help our cause.
Howden is a good player and I would also be working on using a kicking game more for territory.
Yes I know the coach will be doing this already, but more is needed.
That is about all we can do, dig in.

I would show the lads a video of Warrington's win against Saints.
That was great defence and great kicking for the connoisseur.

I agree with a lot of what's been said on here. I love rugby. I watch every Super League game on Sky, watched every Summer Bash match at Blackpool, and I'll never give up on the Dons. I'm in my late 50s and hope to get at least another 20 seasons in!

Why do we all feel the way we feel?

Firstly, we had some success, which in the great scheme of things has been rare for Dons fans over the years. We reached 4th position in the Championship. With optimism at a high due to the stability provided by Club Doncaster, and their stated aims to do their best to get us into Super League, the future looked bright.

We recruited very poorly for the 2015 season and under-estimated the strength of the opposition. Even though we had the coach of the year, we got drubbed on a regular basis.

What would constitute success for the fans in 2016? The side would need to have a serious chance of finishing top or second, with us getting promoted. Getting out of this league at the first attempt was a must. As things stand, we're probably the fourth best team in the league with Toulouse, Rochdale and York ahead of us.

In the end of season play-offs, Toulouse or Rochdale will probably get the first promotion place, the loser will then join York, Dons and possible Keighley in the fight for the other promotion place. As we're likely to be 4th or 5th, it'll mean we'll be away in the semi-final. We'll be underdogs, and then be underdogs if we got to the final. I can't realistically rate our chances of going up at any better than 6 to 1.

This is why we feel despondent as a group. We aren't a serious threat. And if we did go up, we'd need wholesale changes to have any chance at all of staying up.

Next season, Championship One doesn't look appetising as Toronto will be the Toulouse of the division, and we'll be getting Workington plus one from Sheffield, Dewsbury, Whitehaven and Oldham joining us. It's going to be a whole lot harder to get promoted next season than this.

All-in-all, there's not a great deal for us to get excited about. Recruitment has let us down yet again as we haven't got a team that is good enough to compete with the best in the division. We'll probably never know whether this is because other clubs have bigger budgets than us or whether their recruitment is smarter than ours. All we do know is that for whatever reasons, we're not getting it right.

Simply put, the fans feel despondent because the team isn't as good as we hoped it would be.

Unlike last season, it's hard to fault the effort of the players. They're trying hard and doing their best but they're physically not big enough or strong enough to stop other teams from scoring.

The structure of this league is a separate issue but it doesn't help. The teams in our league have played 9 league games. The Championship have played 15 games and the Super League have played 17. The structure must be changed for next season as it's nothing short of awful.

I really hope we can defy the odds and get out of this division this season or else we could find ourselves stuck in it for a few more seasons.

Obviously there as been some gross mismanagement at the club since season 2014

2014 Finished Fourth in the Championship
2015 Finished Twelfth in the Championship & were relegated to League One

Why did the management team & directors allow this to happen?

It's not all doom and gloom. Donny played well yesterday but were up against a better team. The Donny kids look good and GT should be allowed at least another season to improve this squad and add to it. They just about matched full-timers Toulouse for fitness and the game plan, especially in the second half was superb. This bunch of kids will improve if given time. There's no quick fix method at this level.

The problem with this is, and it has been pointed out many times, we don't keep the cream, we don't keep or can't keep what's good about this side.
So the idea that things will get better next season given this side just doesn't happen in reality.
It will be another half squad of newcomers and another half season before we click.

Apart from Doncaster being our club, our squad could belong, with a few faithful exceptions, to anyone.
There is little of Donny in the Dons, same as there is little of local developed talent in lots of clubs.
Howden is not ours to get excited about, nor is Tali etc.
We can't bank on them on them stopping.
Such is the nature of RL, one-club players are in a small minority.

That lack of continuity is for me the biggest turn-off in RL.
You think you have a good side in the offing and it's off!

Decent result for Donny & Toulouse at York earlier. Bit of a shock really.

I would sooner Rochdale had won.
One less side above us.

Surely that would inspire Donny even moe to get maximum points from their remaining games ? They have the ability from what I saw on saturday They need to reduce the errors and tighten up a bit that's all.

The positive aspects for the Dons at the moment is that with Jorden Howden and Jason Tali in the team there is some evidence that we're improving as the season has gone on. The downside is that we're very aware of our defensive weaknesses and haven't got a lot of confidence we can contain the better sides in the league.

With York beating Rochdale, it makes it harder for us to finish in the top four in this first round of matches. A Rochdale win would probably have been better for us. Three wins out of our last four games should be enough to get in the top four although Barrow and Keighley could be breathing down our necks. We certainly can't afford to come unstuck away at Skolars.

In reality, this league structure means that it is all about peaking at the right time, and having everyone fit and playing at their best come the end of the season. This needs to be our aim. Promotion isn't beyond us but most of us probably aren't confident we are good enough to beat the better teams, if the better teams play to their potential.

Donny are the best team i've seen at Toulouse this season and that includes the cup game against Leigh. You looked good going forward with a quick line-speed which shocked the French I believe, forcing them to be unsettled. Yep, maybe better discipline and a bit more quality in defence is the answer but I don't honestly think you are far away from being a promotion side, but I can only go by the one performance. You obviously need to keep hold of the players and suffer the minimum of injuries like any other team. Toulouse have a smallish squad in comparison and injuries and suspensions have taken their toll but they have survived through team spirit and hard work. It's not always rocket science.

It's never rocket science.
Toulouse are top of the table for obvious reasons, which are that on average they are fitter and better with better systems of play.
Better systems of play is the route for improvement for Donny in the short term.

Thornton has to take an analytical approach to this, it is NO GOOD taking a move on approach to rugby.
The evidence is all there, why ignore it?

The analysis of tries conceded for instance should include the entire how, where, why, players involved, frequencies .... the lot!!!
Then, you have a better idea of where your strengths and weaknesses lie and you can try to improve.
You can't just play a player who is shipping two or three tries a game and hope for providence, you have to DO something to help him.
Moving players around can often sort things .

Let's take a case in point Foggin-Johnston .....

I like the guy, BUT, if he ain't scoring tries he shouldn't be in the side, because he is rolled over too easily.
So try him in the halves or fullback or bulk him up pronto.
The same notion applies to others as well who can all be developed or dropped.

I could never be a coach who would say trite things like ...'it was a bad day at the office, let's forget it and move on'.
Learn from mistakes and get better.

trouble is if we start playing well and start picking up point . some posters on here would be saying whats the catch,something will go wrong,our bubble will burst.nature of the beast on here im afraid.im surprised we have,nt seen any public wrist slashing before now.played 10,won 7,lost 3.can only mean the end of the world is nigh.go on now lambast me for being an optimist.COYD.

Difficult to disagree with any of that SO but to contemplate dropping Foggin-J for example isn't positive. He had a cracking game against some decent players but I think the coach should give him licence to be more adaptable to get into the game more instead of hugging the touchline for 80 minutes (ok, so I exaggerate but you get the idea ?). He does need to bulk up like so many (Kriouache a few years back at Toulouse and Pelissier at Cats for example) and that needs the coaching staff to sort this out. You can't make a silk purse out of a pigs ear but a good coach will get more from his squad. I've no idea if GT is the answer but I feel he should have at least another season to try to get more from his squad and strengthen where possible. Makali did ok saturday but youth has to be allowed to come through..

Can't fault that.