Doncaster RLFC are prepared to spend more to land top targets - Pete Green

Although the club’s 2019 campaign ended in a disappointing play-off semi-final defeat at Newcastle the previous week there is much going on behind the scenes with last season’s top try-scorer Sam Doherty putting pen to paper on a new two-year deal.

Chief executive Carl Hall and the club’s coaching staff are talking to a number of other players from last season’s squad they are keen to keep as well as players at other clubs they have targeted.

“Some of the players we’ve identified are also interesting other clubs, some of whom are offering them Championship rugby and you can’t blame players for wanting to play at a high a level as possible,” said Dons No 2 Pete Green.

“Obviously the stadium and the quality of our training facilities as well as our financial stability are plus points when we talk to players.

“But if we want to be in with a chance of signing players we are interested in then in some instances we are probably going to have to offer them more money than we have done in the past to play in League One and the club are backing us in that.

“We’ve already come to the conclusion that we need a stronger squad so we have more depth next season. We were down to the bare bones in the Newcastle game.”

Green says the club are adopting a different policy to recent seasons.

“We’ll be relying more on our own players than the dual-registration arrangement we’ve got with Hull FC,” he said.

“I don’t think dual-reg worked as well as we had hoped last season because some of the players we had hoped to have available moved to other clubs and that left us short.

“It would certainly had made a massive difference to us had we had the likes of Hakim Miloudi, Liam Harris and Cameron Scott on a regular basis. What I will say is that all the dual-reg players made available to us always gave their all and fitted in well within the group.

“We’ll reflect on what went wrong this year and the games where we dropped points where we shouldn’t have done.

“It was a new play-off format this year which made it harder for the teams who finished fourth or below to reach the final.

“We know that next season we’ve got to be good enough to either win automatic promotion or finish second because of the advantages it gives you in the play-offs.”​​​​​​​​​​​​​​