By Martin Morgan

Last updated 11:41, Thursday, 15 May 2008

ELLERY Hanley has told his Doncaster squad to walk tall this season – as they cut a swathe through NL2.

The league legend, voted the all-time greatest British player, is proving as adept at coaching at the lower level as in Super League with St Helens and on the international stage with Great Britain.

And The Dons will travel to Workington Town tomorrow as unbeaten title contenders.

“He’s told us to have a bit of a swagger in our step, as we walk,” Kiwi centre Andreas Bauer told News & Star Sport. “And that confidence will show through if you exude it.

“At first we didn’t know how to take him. He’s Ellery Hanley, and we didn’t know if we should be on our knees kissing his feet. But as the season has gone on, he’s really gelled with the boys. We have a laugh with him after training and the team spirit’s high.”

Hanley has guided the Dons to six successive league wins and they lie second in NL2, one point behind Keighley, who have played one match more.

But even if promoted this year, the club does not see League One as the promised land, preferring to look to 2012, when the club hopes to obtain a Super League licence.

“This is the first hurdle this year,” added Bauer. “There are four or five more, and I want to be part of that.”

Dons’ hooker Corey Lawrie has proved a revelation in his first season in Yorkshire and the 28-year-old former New Zealand Warrior was last week named Co-operative NL2 player-of-the-month for April.

Bauer said: “His game’s been improving each week. We’re concerned a Super League club could come in and poach him, he’s playing that well. He saved us against Keighley, scoring two tries, including one in the last minute that sealed the deal.”

Lawrie is the second Doncaster player to scoop the top NL2 player accolade in as many months, following stand-off Kyle Briggs’ success in March. And Briggs is again named in the team-of-the-month, along with half-back partner Luke Gale, Bauer and prop Craig Lawton.