They have previously been known as Doncaster Dragons and Doncaster Lakers. They were also previously informally known as The Dons but it is now their official nickname.
History
Doncaster
Professional rugby league first began in Doncaster during the build up to the 1951/52 season. The club originally nicknamed 'The Dons' played at the Doncaster Greyhound Stadium, York Road before moving to the new Bentley Road Stadium in August 1953. This ground became the spiritual home of Doncaster Rugby League and was later renamed Tatters Field or Tattersfield as a mark of respect for the former Chairman Len Tattersfield.
Doncaster played their first game on Saturday 18th August 1951. Doncaster began on a winning note, defeating Wakefield Trinity 10-3 at the Greyhound Stadium in front of a crowd of 7,600. Doncaster finished their inaugural season in eleventh position, they won 21, drew one and lost 14 league matches.
From 1956-1961, Doncaster finished every season as the bottom side in the Rugby League, and remained consistently in the bottom three between 1963 and 1968. The seventies and early eighties proved to be no easier, with Doncaster only avoiding a bottom three finish on two occasions between 1970 and 1985.
Bill Kenny was coach of the Dons between June 1980-May 1981.
On Sunday 1st September 1991, Third Division rugby was introduced into British rugby league. Doncaster entertained Nottingham City that day with the home side winning by a club record 88-6.
Doncaster won eight consecutive games, but in the penultimate game of the 1994 season they fell to a surprise 20-2 away defeat to mid-table Rochdale Hornets as Workington Town beat Keighley Cougars to take top spot. Doncaster won 10-5 in their final game away at Batley’s Mount Pleasant and the club won promotion to the Premier Division for the first time in 1993-94.
In 1994-95 Tattersfield was the venue for a game against Widnes, broadcast live on Sky Television, which Doncaster won by 21 points to 6. At that time, "The Dons" were at the top of Division 1.
At the end of their one and only season in the top flight the club went into liquidation and the curtain closed on the Tattersfield era when the stadium was sold for housing developments. The Dons played their last game at Tattersfield on 23rd April 1995.
When a Rupert Murdoch funded Super League competition was proposed, part of the deal was that some traditional clubs would merge. Doncaster was to merge with Sheffield to form a South Yorkshire club that would compete in Super League. This was unpopular with the fans and was resisted.
Doncaster Dragons
The following a year, a new club called Doncaster Dragons raised from the ashes of the previous club, but was forced to restart life in the bottom division of the Rugby Football League. With Tattersfield gone they temporarily shared Belle Vue Stadium with soccer club Doncaster Rovers while
A previous Doncaster Rugby League Logo
Meadow Court Stadium (another greyhound stadium in Stainforth, Doncaster) was being prepared for rugby league. The Dragons played at Meadow Court Stadium for a few years before returning to Belle Vue permanently for the beginning of the 1998 season.
In 1999, St John Ellis was appointed head coach of Doncaster, he was too late to prevent them finishing 18th and last in the Premiership, making them the lowest-ranked club in the professional game. The following year, helped by some ambitious recruitment, they were third. One of Doncaster's achievements under Ellis was to become notoriously difficult to beat at home, with the Belle Vue ground unofficially re-named 'The House of Pain'. John Wright rescued Doncaster from liquidation in 2001 and oversaw the steady growth of the club, while St John remained coach.
Doncaster Lakers
At the end of the 2005 season Dragons was dropped and Doncaster Rugby League adopted the name Lakers to reflect the new Lakeside Community Stadium' (now The Keepmoat Stadium), which would soon be their new home. The stadium, a purpose built community facility, would house both Lakers and Doncaster Rovers Football Club as well as women’s football team Doncaster Belles.
Tony Miller was appointed head coach for the 2006 season following the untimely death on New Year's Eve 2005, of St John Ellis. Singe, as he was known familiarly by fans, was rugby league's longest serving coach at the time.
Loyal Doncaster fans began to oppose the re-branding to Lakers, especially when the club's trademark colours, blue and gold, were replaced with red white and black.
The club parted company with Tony Miller in July 2006 and former Great Britain International Alan Hunte of Salford City Reds agreed to help the club in a short-term coaching role. The sacking of Miller later led to him receiving £8,000 when he took the club to court.
Australian Kieran Dempsey, formerly of Parramatta Eels, was appointed Head Coach on a two-year contract in August 2006 and Phil Windley was appointed as his assistant.
The 2007 season kicked off early for the Lakers, when they played host to a pre-season warm up against Sheffield Eagles on 27 December2006. This was no ordinary game, as it marked the opening of The Keepmoat Stadium. The stadium previously known as The Lakeside Community Stadium which houses Doncaster Lakers RLFC, Doncaster Rovers FC and Doncaster Belles (Women's) FC, boasts seats for 16,000 supporters with room for expansion in the future and contains brand new training facilities. Lakers, back in blue and gold, lost 16–10 in front of 5,400 spectators, the club's biggest crowd in a decade. Lakers travelled to the Jungle in their next match, to face Castleford, in a pre-season testimonial for St. John Ellis. 3,000 supporters turned out to pay their respects to Ellis, who had both played for Castleford and coached Doncaster. All proceeds from the game went to the St John Ellis Memorial Fund, to help support his family. The Lakers came bottom of their Northern Rail Cup group containing Castleford, Sheffield Eagles and Featherstone Rovers, with 7 points. Only gaining one win over Sheffield away (18–20), a draw against Featherstone at home (18–18), and bonus points in their losses against Featherstone away (24–22) and Sheffield at home (12–20). On 1 April2007, Head Coach Keiran Dempsey and Assistant Coach Phil Windley were suspended pending an internal investigation and Gary Wilkinson was temporary placed in charge of the team. The following Friday (6 April2007) saw the Lakers kick start the 2007 league campaign beating Sheffield Eagles 24–20 away from home.
Doncaster Home and Away Kits 2007
Six and a half thousand people attended the club's first game on live TV for over 10 years, on Thursday 12 April at the Keepmoat Stadium. The game shown live on Sky Sports saw Doncaster pummelled 66–4 against promotion favourites Castleford. Three days later the Lakers suffered another defeat at home against Leigh (52–18). During the two weeks Lakers had to prepare for their next league game away at newly promoted Dewsbury. It was announced by chairman John Wright that the club was having financial difficulties and would have to apply to go into a CVA (Company Voluntary Agreement). The players rallied around and beat Dewsbury 26–33 with an inspirational second half display, which saw Graham Holroyd (returning from injury) lead his team back from trailing 26–10 at half-time.
The Lakers then went on to defeat joint top of the table Whitehaven 26–16. The match, which was promoted as possibly the last ever game of professional rugby league in Doncaster, attracted only 831 supporters, despite pleas from John Wright for the people of Doncaster to help save the club. On Saturday 12 May Chairman John Wright announced he was to resign from the club. Lakers only just managed to put together a team against Rochdale Hornets away at Spotland on 20 May, after several players including Graham Holroyd and Danny Mills left the club. The team went on to lose 58–12 to the sound of the chant, 'We're proud of you' from the travelling fans. A few hours after the match, Coach Gary Wilkinson resigned. The following Tuesday (22 May), local lad and crowd favourite Peter Green was announced as Caretaker Coach. On Sunday 3 June, Lakers lost at home to Batley 48–14 and on the following Sunday 10 June at home, they suffered a massive 90–4 defeat at the hands of Widnes. This match appeared to be the last ever match Doncaster Lakers would play, when Chairman John Wright decided he would put the club in liquidation come Wednesday 13 June if no buyers came forward. The crowd of over 1,200 including a great Widnes following and the Doncaster diehards applauded the loyal Doncaster players upon the final whistle in what was a spectacular rugby league moment.
When Wednesday 13th finally came, it was announced that Doncaster-born businessmen Shane Miller and Craig Harrison had struck a deal with the RFL to set up a new club which would take over from the old one within National League 1. It was thought the club John Wright still had control over would fold. [2]. On Tuesday 19 June, Doncaster announced former St. Helens and Widnes forward John Stankevitch as new Head Coach, taking over from Caretaker Coach Peter Green. Stankevitch had left his post as the Chemics' Senior Academy Coach to take the position. On 28 June it was announced that the new owners had decided to ditch the Lakers moniker and revert back to Doncaster RLFC nicknamed, ‘The Dons'. Subsequently a new logo designed by a local student was revealed. This logo featured two lions from the Doncaster town crest holding a rugby ball which had mortarboard on top of it to symbolise ‘The Dons’. [3]. The Dons lost 20–32 against Sheffield Eagles on 1 July, in front of a crowd of 1,030. At The Jungle on 8 July, Doncaster lost 66–4 against Castleford. On 22 July at the Keepmoat Stadium 'The Dons' lost 30–44 at the hands of Halifax. Former player Graham Holroyd denied Doncaster a bonus point by converting a Halifax try on the final hooter. The following Sunday, 29 July, the travelling Dons put up a gutsy performance, losing 40–18 against league leaders Widnes at the Halton Stadium. The Dons got their first win under the new regime and kept hopes of staying in National League One alive on 5 August beating Rochdale Hornets 34–30 at home.
These hopes were later shattered though the following Sunday, 12 August when they lost 26–12 against Batley at Mount Pleasant, after leading 12–6 at half time. This meant that the only likely outcome would be the Dons playing National League 2 rugby next season. The Dons lost 34–14 against Leigh at Hilton Park on 19 August. In the last home game of the 2007 season, 'The Dons' put on a brilliant performance to beat Dewsbury 51–18. For the final game of the season 'the Dons' travelled to The Shay to face Halifax. Former 'Don' Graham Holroyd ran the game for Halifax, leading them to a 52–24 victory, this result meant that Doncaster had finished bottom of the 2007 League table.
As the fans clapped the 'Dons' off for the final time this season, they put this terrible campaign behind them, simply happy they would have a team to support the following year.
2008 Season
During the run up to the 2008 season, on the 29th November 2007 it was announced on the official Doncaster RLFC website that Head Coach John Stankevitch had resigned, due to "personal reasons". On the 14th December 2007, rugby league legend Ellery Hanley was unveiled as Stankevitch's replacement. The Dons were drawn into Northern Rail Cup Group 3 alongside London Skolars, Celtic Crusaders and South Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Eagles. The Dons qualified for the knock out phase still with a game in hand by beating London at home and away as well as taking bonus points off Sheffield and Celtic, who both play in a higher division. The last game of the group however saw an unprecedented event from the Rugby Football League. Having travelled to Bridgend to take on the Crusaders the game was called off near to the kick-off due to a severely water-logged pitch. The RFL ruled that as the result of this game was immaterial to every side in the competitions’ qualifying ambitions the match would not need to be rescheduled. The Dons started the 2008 league campaign with a bang, winning three from three with 56 - 0, 54 - 12 and 36 - 18 wins. This saw them go top of the league at the end of March, a month in which Stand Off Kyle Briggs also won the National League Two Player of the Month.
