There is a large article in the Free Press by Carl.

He spells things out what will happen if we don't get bigger crowds next season.

Oooops!

He states we need promotion next season to get increased revenue from the Championship in 2013. If not we couldnt afford to stay at the KM.



Quite sensible to me , not doom & gloom .

If that was all he stated the article would have been a lot shorter.

I wouldn't mind moving if they were considering Castle Park. The Keepmoat is far to big for us.

Lets move to Castle Park. Great ground now. Be more atmosphere and decent beer. And if Ryan and co buy the Keepmoat then our money won't be going into the rovers pockets.

On reading the article--- i would say that moving away from the Keepmoat is the last thing Carl wants.

The facilities at the KM are good but with a team like Fev struggling to pull in two thousand i just can't see the point of us playing there. Surely a smaller ground would create a far better atmosphere.

I think if it means saving money and having a better atmoshere, then it would not worry me to go to Castle Park.

I dont think playing at the Keepmoat or Castle Park will make any difference to attendances. The only way we will get the crowds back in my opinion is a move back to the other end of Donny that is the RL hotbed.



When I win the euromillions draw on Friday night the 1st thing ill do is pay for a new ground to be built on the sacred ground of tattersfield!!

So the club needs more fans coming through the turnstyles, you don t say. The club has done some brilliant deals over recent years, but there does not appear to be any long term plan to increase spectators which will be difficult in current times anyway. Similarly is there a long term plan/ strategy to attract business to the Dons, probably not having had to endure the diatribe at the Q & A after the last home game where the usual give us your money plea tactic was used. Also at the Q&A there did not appear to be much enthusiasm for promotion.



Does the advisory board still exist, do these people have any ideas on how to help the club.



And I m sure next season will be intriguing, however I feel it will be my last season as I have better things to do on my days off when it has been the same story for 20 odd years delivered by the same small group!



And a change of ground will make no difference, the problem is a lot deeper.

Well firstly we didn't finish fourth, let's dispel that notion.

We came fifth and it is because of this that we had to travel to Rochdale where we lost. We would have probably beaten them at the Keepmoat.

We would however most certainly have lost at Keighley, just like Rochdale did, since we had had a rehearsal a few weeks previous and we were dreadful, and Keighley just got better.



Secondly, there were only two successful clubs in our division, namely Swinton and Keighley.

Finishing in the top four is not a goal, it is just an intermediate step to a proper goal which is promotion.

Our goal next season should be promotion and that alone.



Thirdly there has to be a plan covering several seasons. A plan that is revised according to achievements. Now the plan may not be to be a Superleague club, or it may be. If a creditable plan cannot show how we can get into Superleague (if that is our goal) then we need another plan, say to be a good Championship side having an eye to winning honours in that division, cups/money etc.

We can't just suck it and see, that is not a plan.



Now one thing is for sure, if nothing changes we will stay roughly where we are, drop down our division or slowly go bust.

So something needs to change. One obviously is to get a better crowd on the back of better marketing and a better side.

Now if we take the view that the side of last season as a core coupled with some affordable journeymen will get us promotion, then fine. They had better be interesting journeymen though otherwise people won't get revved up enough to make a difference. If we slavishly adhere to our current policy of balancing books it may work, but it's a big gamble. Look at the Rovers, they shook things up, took a gamble and so far it's paying off, good luck to them. Their NEW target is moving from just staying in the division to making a play-off spot.



I think we should be bolder, but that is easy for me to say.

I have stated that if we had have been bolder with two more decent signings, we would have been promoted. That's hindsight maybe, but I still believe it.



Whatever the construction of our side next season, it must be better than last season in key positions. Though I think that the club did a marvelous job with the on-loan players that they got. Some quality there, but we are back to square one almost on that front. Will we have any of them next time?



So it will be intriguing next season, but we had better pick wisely or it won't go anywhere. We should analyse what made Swinton and Keighley better outfits that ours and where we need to improve.



What I do find off-putting about rugby at our level, is that there is too much change. Every season half the players ship out and by the time the new ones (normally young ones who need training) are bedded in and we have got to know them the season is over.

That is rugby on a shoe-string, hand-to-mouth basis, and it's no good.

I know that's not our fault.

Weren't Armthorpe Welfare talkng about moving to a new ground up by the M18? Maybe if we got involved with them would not the dual sporting use of the facility qualify for various grants?