Reflections : Sun Sep 04, 2022 4:23 pm  

Firstly congratulations to the boys on an outstanding second half today. It hit me at full time that this game has been a reflection of the year.
I keep reading on various social media channels that it’s not how you start it’s how you finish and everything will come good. I can’t help but reflect that if your start is better the outcome is much more likely to be positive. Keighley started like a train and never stopped. The teams above us started better than us had a dip but have still finished better than us.
Our slow start this year and a slow start today has cost us places meaning the playoffs are a tougher proposition.
When are we going to accept as a club that the season is not something to build into in when you’re in league 1 - you have to be at the races from the get go or things are much harder than they need to be.
Even if we get promoted this year I will still hold this view (and won’t be brow beat into apologising for holding it) as we will have done it the hard way and surely there’s lessons to be learned for the benefit of the club.
Again congratulations to the boys for qualifying and good luck in the playoffs. I want the dons to be promoted as much as the next supporter but I also want to know that we can be a dynamic club and learn as we move forwards.

Re: Reflections : Sun Sep 04, 2022 4:49 pm  

With a league season of 20 games, you need to get off to a quick start. I think teams in the top five only lost one match all season to a team outside the top five. This means the eight games you play against the better sides are the ones that are going to shape your season.

On 19th April, we lost at home 22-64 to Swinton, and on 8th May we lost at home to N Wales 0-46; these were major blows, not just the defeats but the size of the defeats. The lads did well to come back from that and all credit to them for doing so.

I appreciate it must be difficult when there are so many new players in your squad but I would have thought this could be mitigated to some degree by playing more pre-season games. I think we only had one warm up game last season and one this season.

We could still get promoted this year. I reckon we'll get to the play-off final. I'd have Swinton as slight favourites to beat us but in a one-off game, we'll certainly have a decent chance.

Re: Reflections : Sun Sep 04, 2022 4:56 pm  

Thanks Double Movement. I posted this now as I’m worried that the fact we have got to the playoffs papers over the cracks, and the lessons of this year are ignored because it has come good in the end. Those stats are undeniable.

Re: Reflections : Sun Sep 04, 2022 5:02 pm  

Good post Ralphie. Its frustrating (again) and its exactly this why some fans are getting just a tad tired of Deja vu.

Re: Reflections : Sun Sep 04, 2022 5:22 pm  

Ralphie wrote:

Thanks Double Movement. I posted this now as I’m worried that the fact we have got to the playoffs papers over the cracks, and the lessons of this year are ignored because it has come good in the end. Those stats are undeniable.

I know what you're saying, Ralphie. If we went up, some fans may see the earlier shortcomings as irrelevant when there's much to be learnt.

I don't know whether Richard Horne weighs up the potential disadavantages of players getting injured in warm up matches with the need to get match fit and up-to-speed with the rest of the team so opts for one pre-season game because of this. I'm guessing.

The game against Cas may have brought in a few quid but it wasn't really what we needed in getting prepared for the season ahead. There may be other difficulties we don't know about as getting games against Championship sides could be tough as they start their season earlier, when we're still in winter hibernation. Anyway, what we're doing doesn't seem to be working very well and we need to try to do better next season whichever league we're in.