Football fan flies 10,000 miles from Australia to watch non-league Doncaster City match

Richard Dolan jetted across the globe to watch Doncaster City, the non-league club set up last year by football agent Willie McKay and his son Mark to rival Rovers.

The club have so far gone unbeaten in their debut season, topping the Sheffield and Hallamshire County Senior League Division Two with 17 wins from 17 games.

And Richard, who saw City squeeze to a narrow 4-3 win over Sheffield City FC Reserves, has urged fellow football lovers to following him in making the switch from red and white to City’s sky blue after Rovers slumped to another defeat at the weekend, losing 2-0 to Northampton Town at the Eco Power Stadium.

Drinks company boss Richard, who runs a winery and vineyard in South Australia, originally hails from Armthorpe and emigrated Down Under in 2002, marrying into the famous Hardy wines family when he tied the knot with wife Bec.

And the businessman, whose firm Bec Hardy Wines sponsors Doncaster City, said that despite being a lifelong Doncaster Rovers fan, his allegiances are now with the new club, which plays its games at Armthorpe Welfare FC.

He said: “I am a lifelong Doncaster Rovers fan.

"The last match I went to was in September 2022, my first game in around 20 years was an experience - but the energy around the club appears to be static or waning.

“The opportunity to sponsor and work with Doncaster City came about fortuitously through an introduction to Willie and Mark McKay.

"The project is an interesting one.

"There’s a real energy around the place, there’s ambition and the media and social media is funny and engaging – a marked contrast to the Rovers.

"For Bec and I it is about a little bit of fun and supporting grass roots football and hopefully being part of a successful journey as City and we ourselves grow.”

Former McAuley pupil Mr Dolan, 52, grew up in the Corporation Brewery Taps pub where his parents were publicans.

He said: “I married into the Hardy wine dynasty and subsequently ended up working in wine.

"Today, my wife – a sixth-generation of the Hardy family - and I own our own 500,000 bottle premium winery in the McLaren Vale wine region in South Australia, farming 32 hectares of vineyards.

"Bec’s great-great-great grandfather was widely regarded as the father of the South Australian wine industry and started what is still today one of the world’s largest wine brands – Hardy’s, but there’s no longer a family or corporate relationship with that business.

"They’ve achieved remarkable things outside of wine too.

"My wife’s great uncle, Sir James Hardy OBE, is one of Australia’s foremost sailors and her grandmother at the age of 94 is regarded as one of South Australia’s greatest environmentalists.He added: “I’m told there’s only three Yorkshire folk in the wine industry overseas as either winemakers, owners or producers. I think we can conclude, therefore there’s likely only one from Doncaster!

Urging fans to switch, he added: “Make the change, the city is blue.”