Gargoyle, yes there are good players in Donny but the standard of rugby played by most clubs is below the standard required to turn out as a pro,even at this level.I have recently joined the coaching staff along with a very good conditioner from Wigan and i can assure you that over the last three weeks the lads have trained their butts off three nights a week,as well as their own training.I can assure you that all the lads want to play here,with losing money most of the lads are worse off by the time you take away travel costs.Its time to face facts that the club has no money ,Tony is doing the best he can with the money available. Myself and the conditiner (who travels from Wigan ) are not being paid by the club,we are doing this to help out Tony and the club we all love. It is very easy for fans to call for the coach to be sacked,but the players also have a responsibility to play with pride and passion for the shirt.This is a very young side that has been brought together on a nothing budget,the spirit in the team is first class and i believe it is only a matter of time before we click.

Thanks for that insight chunkster . Keep up the good work .

When they do click.....which they will..... the first decent club we beat will have carte blanche to cherry pick our best players......and what will make them want to stop at Donny?
I really wish we could keep this side for the entire season and watch them develop into good players.....but we can't seem to keep anyone decent when we are always skint.
It's a catch 22 situation.
We can't keep a good crowd because we can't keep a good team.
It seems like ages since we had a settled side.

Still let's get a win against Blackpool or York first.

The players are registered with us.

If more fans donot back the club , we maynot have a club . Its not rocket science.

COYD

Registration means nothing.........
And more fans are NOT going to back the club until the team starts winning.
That's not rocket science either...
....hence the catch 22 reference.

Well you may be wrong , someone has just walked out on the Eagles, Tubbs has refused to give up his registration !

They do all have contracts, and we hold their registration...this has been proved in the past to be meaningless though, although it has proved to be valuable sometimes. I suppose it depends on how steadfast we get!

Excuse me, the player has walked.....ergo he is not playing for the Eagles....he's effectively resigned.
I doubt Tubbs can stop a man trying to earn a living elswhere.

The players are registered with the club for this season so they cannot leave unless they are sold. It is a good chance for players to put themselves in the shop window, if we can consolidate this season, then may be with our money from the rugby league we can kick on next season and maybe sign more players onloan as it has been tough to get players to come for match payments.

So the cycle will continue then?
If they are putting themselves in the shop window, then that assumes that the good ones will probably be sold......and then we will be back to square one. We need to keep them.
What sort of money do players at our level command in transfer fees?

Not much more than a couple of Mars Bars...

Looking at this seasons squad, there are definitely players who are more than good enough to make a living at a higher level than Championship One, and hopefully with the new conditioner coming in, they'll improve in areas where it seems obvious to some that they've been lacking.

If we can have a good season this year [finish in a mid table position], and keep the nucleus of the team together [Simon Brown, Craig Fawcett, Sean Leaf... etc] then next year, we will have a good chance of pressing on. We just need to accept that we'll lose a few players throughout the season.

COYD.

Well yes we do......but we are craving for some continuity.
I don't want to have a succession of seasons greeting completely new faces......that's why the crowds left.
This side is a side we must develop and try to keep....or else what is the point of watching this kind of rugby?
We just become a recruitment agency for other clubs.

Totaly agree,dont mean putting themselves in the shop window to leave the club,i ment to try and get themselves a contract next year if the money is forthcoming,but i think we all know that the days of paying players money the club doesnt have are long gone.Carl is running this as a business,not as a rich mans fancy,and business need revenue to survive,if we dont have money then you are not going to sign the best players.I would rather watch a team of triers that get beat ,than a team of over paid players who are only there for the cash.

Agreed.

I think at our level the money is secondary to the rugby,i played for the Dons when they were paying money the club couldnt afford, and i played for them when they had nothing,when the club went bust in the stones bitter championship,we played agains Hull fc at The Boulavard and were beaten ,for a loss we earned nearly twice as much for losing as Hull did for winning,but most of the players who stood by the club would have played for next to nothing.The lads we have now are of the same breed,they want to play rugby league, as they have curtainly not come here for the money.