Miloudi was injured last game.

The two singlest biggest drivers for attendances are:

1) On-field performances, and
2) The quality of rugby on offer.

There is also a clear link between the levels of support a team gets and it's league position. A successful club will be one where appropriate investments are made by the management and the supporters also get behind the team.

Take football as an example: The four best supported teams in League Two last year were the teams that finished first, second, third, and fourth. Okay, winning is likely to bring in more fans so there is probably a link between the two but if we explore further, taking the football Championship into account, 75% of all teams finished within 5 places of the levels of support they got.

In the Championship, there were six teams averaging fewer than 13,000 in their home league games, they finished 10th, 11th, 20th, 22nd, 23rd, and 24th. Unless a team is getting more than 13,000 fans, it seems as though it's very difficult to survive at that level. The two teams that were significantly better than their attendances suggested were Brentford and Preston. Preston are currently 7th and Brentford are 24th this season after four games. It'll be interesting to see if Preston can continue to buck the trend or whether they'll revert to the norm for their supporter base level.

In terms of having a sustainable team in Super League, a minimum fan base of 5,000 looks like the appropriate level with a 10,000 fanbase being needed to be in with a chance of sustaining a place in the top four.

If the Dons have aspirations to get into Super League, the management of the club won't be able to do it on their own. The people of Doncaster will have to get behind the club too. Similarly, the fans can't do it on their own and Club Doncaster will have to play their part as well. They may have to play a considerable part considering the position we're presently in and the number of towels that have already been thrown in!

Whichever way we look at it, all sporting clubs have a greater chance of success if they're well supported (compared to their opponents).

I'm going to the Dons meeting tomorrow. It's the first meeting I will have been to. I've already forwarded a list of suggestions to the club saying what I think we need to try do to improve attendances. I'm going to the meeting because I care and I want to try to do something to help. I also recognise there are no easy answers.

I hope the rest of the Doncaster public also care and want to do their bit to help bring success to Doncaster. If they don't, I fear the upper levels of our ambitions will probably always be limited to getting out of this league and then trying to survive for as long as possible in the Championship.

Report www.doncasterrugbyleague.co.uk

Report www.doncasterrugbyleague.co.uk

Report www.doncasterrugbyleague.co.uk

Report www.doncasterrugbyleague.co.uk

I wonder what sort of high tackle merits a sin binning? No match is complete without a number of high tackles yet I can't remember any one of them resulting in a yellow card or anything more than a penalty award. Surely Louis Sherriff should now be in police custody for such a heinous offence. Oh and I expect that certain so-called fans on here will be blaming this on Carl Hall to add to all his other crimes against DRLFC.

Next season?
Who gives AFF about next season?
We have now completed the set... the set being that we have lost to EVERY team in the top eight.
Shocking!
Turn the lights off I say.
RH has a shocking record yet people bang on about him ... get rid I say.
Is he any better than GT?
He bangs on about cutting out mistakes and nothing happens.
Another bullter.
Shouldn't we be walloping teams by now?
That aside everything is just dandy.
COYD

Please feel free to be optimistic.

Well I do for 1 .

I think RH will be a good choice of coach for the Dons .

COYD

It's unrealistic to bring in a new coach and expect everything to be perfect after he's had half a dozen games in charge.

Similar to there being a link between crowds and success levels, there is also a link between player ability and what a coach can achieve with them. Every coach must be given the chance to assemble his own squad before he can be judged.

Playing styles have changed since Richard Horne arrived. The defence has looked better organised. We've looked more dangerous going forwards but we're still lacking quality.

I'm happy with Richard Horne and believe we have got the right man for the job.

The headline in the RL Express is "Dons pay for ill discipline."
The Dons gave away 15 penalties ... no doubt in part to them having to defend so much.

He said he would cut this out ... he's not doing a very good job is he?

One game won in four super 8 games and that was nearly lost as well.

Pretty poor record thus far.

My point still remains ... how is this an improvement on GT?

So we are losing by fewer points but spending 70% of games defending.

But wins are rare, clear wins are non-existent.

It is the players who give away the penalties .
What can I do .....that is what GT said to me at the away game at York .

RH has a big job on his hands he has got to make them more professional or get rid of the offenders . He cannot do that until the end of the season .

If I was guessing man, which I am, I would say that his hands will be well tied financially after this season.
A season when there is no correlation between financial input and material output.
I don't think the Rovers will want to continue throwing good money after bad.

And to claim there is little he can do if players continue with ill discipline is really not on.
If GT said that then really he shouldn't be a coach.

The Dons are continually harping on about having a large mainly fit squad ... and he can't identify the main culprits of indiscipline and drop them until they see sense or heaven forbid coach them in ways to minimise said ill discipline.

What's he there for then?

GT did say that I assure you . RH on Workington www.doncasterrugbyleague.co.uk COYD

GT did say that I assure you . RH on Workington www.doncasterrugbyleague.co.uk COYD

Quote ="weighman"GT did say that I assure you . RH on Workington www.doncasterrugbyleague.co.uk COYD'" These are merely observations and excuses. What is needed is insight. He seems no nearer than when he started to sorting out his side. I could write stuff like he has ... what ifs etc. One man down and three tries conceded in ten mins? So what did he do after the second one?

Quote ="weighman"GT did say that I assure you . RH on Workington www.doncasterrugbyleague.co.uk COYD'" These are merely observations and excuses. What is needed is insight. He seems no nearer than when he started to sorting out his side. I could write stuff like he has ... what ifs etc. One man down and three tries conceded in ten mins? So what did he do after the second one?

Standoffish sounds like your average football fan. A new manager comes in and if he doesn't produce instant results he has to go. That's a recipe for instability and disaster. Any new manager has to be given time, and enough of it, to achieve those results. As has been noted, and is obvious in matches, discipline is a problem and needs to be addressed. Horne has acknowledged this and is no doubt working on it. As soon as opposition teams sense that discipline is lax they will do their best to provoke situations which will test that discipline. One thing that is needed is a cool head on the pitch to manage the discipline. Normally you would expect that to be the captain but I'm not sure that Kyle Kesick is the best person for that role.

Why? And I would probably blame a player that was actually in Workington on Sunday.

I am neither average nor a football fan.
But thanks for talking about me in the third person ...

Yes a coach needs time to prove himself or show he is useless.

Just how many games is that?
He has had quite a few this season ... more than GT possibly who was sacked when going for fourth place.

RH is safe as long as we cling to 5th and a play-off berth.

Otherwise it is just goodwill and the Hull connection that is in his favour.

Standoffish I didn't say you were average or a football fan - just that you sounded like one. And I referred to you in the third person as I was addressing the forum. As far as Kesick is concerned it is irrelevant whether he was in the squad yesterday. My point was that as the captain I don't think he would be the right person to oversee discipline on the pitch as his own record in that respect is dubious. I would not, however, doubt his heart and commitment.

Fair play ...

It's much nicer and friendlier to address specific posts and posters directly than talk about the poster as though he isn't in the room.
But that is just my view.

Players need to step up - headline from today's Free Press sports section. www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/spo ... -1-8714005

Players need to step up - headline from today's Free Press sports section. www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/spo ... -1-8714005

There is a bigger issue here I think, in recent years we have had several seasons which have been written off due to "poor recruitment" several different coaches have been blamed for this, PC, GT and now RH 66% of which have paid the price for failure.

The one season we had success was when PC was allowed to sign the players he wanted, and we had some decent half backs.

I do wonder if the coach is making all the signing decisions we will seemingly sign anyone Craig Harrison pushes our way (good or bad) so they can use our club as a stepping stone to sign for an SL of Championship club (Groat/Clark).

To me, there has been a common factor in the past few seasons of disappointment which has been the upper levels of the clubs management and the joining up with club Doncaster. No one feels the need to question the people ultimately responsible for the current failings of our club, this season is a write off for me, lets hope we start next season better without a continued reliance on being a feeder club of Hull.

A settled side with a good mix of youth and experience (quality and prospects) performing well week in week out will bring the crowds back. I am not convinced by RH as our head coach not for his ability to coach it's more that he's not fully our coach he's still working with Radford at Hull and surely his full focus cannot be on us as a club were a "side project". The day before an important game for us he was sat in the stands with Radford coaching a challenge cup semi......

Other clubs in our league manage it and we supposedly well backed by "Club Doncaster" so let's be that and be Doncaster not Hull Reserves.

Steve you raise some valid points . I am not a Dual Reg fan but we had 1 Hull loan player in the 17 v Workington .
Give RH a fair chance .

COYD

There are indeed some issues in Steve's post that IMO are very valid. Player recruitment being one of them, we do seem to be on the same treadmill season after season.

I also now go along with this season being dead, it died last Sunday IMO. The complete failure to get any points from that crucial game as left us with an extremely difficult run in and the prospect of only one win to come.

We may have only had one DR player, but recent announcement seems to imply that the French lad is here to get ready to be a Hull FC player as he's signed for them and has been playing for their reserves. I think RH would make a decent coach if he was 100% our coach or maybe even 75% our coach but he's clearly 75% Hull 25% Donny, its that imbalance I have an issue with. I am aware GT worked full time away from being our coach to but least it wasnt for another RL club, surely there are going to be some conflicts of interest, what happens if we draw Hull FC in the cup??

I am more happy with players who come to us from Hull than I am with some that may have come from the stable that you mention in your recruitment post.

I agree that we haven't put together strong enough squads over recent seasons and that has ultimately caused us to come up short of where we'd like to be.

I think we sometimes under-estimate how difficult it is to put together a squad of part-time players who are the best players in the division. It's not just about money, it's about location. If a player's main job is in Cumbria, he's not going to want to play in South Yorkshire, even if you offered him another £200 per week to do so.

I suspect it's difficult to get players to drop down from the Championship to Championship One too, as players will be keen to play at the highest level they can even if you tried to match the wages of the Championship club.

I'm not great fan of DR either but as a coach I would have to weigh up the benefits and the drawbacks of it and ultimately do what I believed gave us the best chance of winning every match we play. If we need a touch of class from Hull to do it, then so be it.

I don't see the problems with Richard Horne being connected with Hull. He's going to be learning his trade further by being involved with a full-time club. This seems to be the better option to spending all week working in a job outside rugby. There may be a conflict of interests if the Dons play Hull in the cup but I don't think that's something to particularly worry about.

Through my untrained eye, I can see the differences Richard Horne has made to our playing style since he's been here. We're trying to play an attractive brand of rugby, rather than going down the middle all the time. I'm excited at the thought of him putting his own team together for next season. I believe we have got the right man for the job.