I don't think there was any apathy in the players' minds. After all, they're all playing for their places in next week's team.

Sadly I don't think our forwards are going to be as dominant as I'd hoped they may be. I had exactly the same feelings at the start of last season. I thought we'd boss teams upfront. Playing against the youngsters in the friendlies seems to have twice lead me to believe we're better than we actually are. When we come up against men, we can't dominate them in the same way and we don't look anywhere near as good.

Maybe the conditions were tough yesterday and that played a part but I certainly feel less enthusiastic about our promotion chances after yesterday's game than I did before it. Defensively we didn't give much away but only scoring 4 tries against Coventry (no disrespect meant because I thought they tried hard and gave a decent account of themselves) was poor. Help was provided by Coventry mistakes (sorry number five!) too. We looked awful in attack.

Is this the fault of the coach or is it the fault of the players who are struggling to execute the plays they've practiced? I don't know.

If we don't improve I suspect we'll get beaten by some teams in this league that we ought to be beating.

GT has a lot of work to do. I hope he's up to the challenge. We need to win the next three league games with improved performances before going into the Toronto match.

I thought there was an air of disappointed realisation among the players yesterday that they are not going to sweep all before them and that this season is gonna be a lot harder than some may have thought.

To be fair to Carl , in the dugout, he has been stressing its going to be tough this season & the players have to turn up for matches.
That message has to be relayed to the players by the coaching staff. Something wasn't right yesterday .

www.thestar.co.uk/sport/rugby-league

www.thestar.co.uk/sport/rugby-league

Thank You for taking the trouble to reply. Some hard work ahead me thinks. Maybe a proper leader of the old school out on the pitch would not go a miss.

The Star's report certainly seems more positive than most postings on here.

I'm not sure where GT's 'entertaining sides' are - I can recall very few games under his coaching that I would describe as entertaining.

I can't remember when I last went to an away match so I guess the entertainment must be better when we're not at the Keepmoat.

I think the 'underestimating the challenge of getting out of this division' excuse has been used before. After last season, we should have seen the light by now.

At least any innocent bystanders who read The Star might think we're worth a look - for one match at least.

With regard a leader on the field, K Kesik leads by example but he is only on for 40 mins or so. However there are enough experienced players in the side to do the job .

Is it that the players are not happy with the game plan . I do not know , just an observation .

We cannot fail again this season in the big games eg v Keighley , Barrow , Workington , Whitehaven & Newcastle .

Reaction Thornton happy www.doncasterrugbyleague.co.uk

Reaction Thornton happy www.doncasterrugbyleague.co.uk

We'll see how many barrow score against them Sunday.