dead man inc

Only 1 Bronco today, Jacob Ogden. With Broncos relatively small squad & injuries starting to take their toll the younger Broncos players that had been getting a run out with Skolars/Coventry have been called up to the Broncos1st team - 7 Broncos academy converts have made SL debuts so far.

Will be interesting to see how Skolars perform without the Broncos DR players - it looks like the younger Broncos players will be unavailable as they are in the Warrington squad or on DR with Sheffield this weekend.

Ealing is NOT the problem in relation to the above 2 posts... Amateur RU clubs are all over London, wherever you picked a place to move the Broncos to there would be numerous long and established amatuer RU clubs nearby. There is a growing mini/junior london based rugby league structure & competition, but realistically & honestly it is played by hundreds of kids (the majority/many in their union off season) compared to the thousands playing union. Financially the really good London based youth players will make significantly more money at union - Broncos cannot compete with the salary of the RU premiership teams e.g. England RU u20 has 2 players who started in the london rugby league structure at Skolars, both however followed the AASE college route with RU premiership teams rather than the Broncos academy. In London we are spoilt by good public transport options, however this means we are not used to any end point being more than a 5-10 minute walk max from a tube stop! Having to get a bus after a tube is for many a hassle/mission that probably does affect casual new people attending games at trailfinders. Based on the current financial expenditure at the club, I believe Trailfinders works as a good base for the Broncos - having the 1st team, academy & scholarship based at the same place is really important and until the crowds are stating to show signs of exceeding trailfinders limits I think they should keep an established base there. I do not believe just moving to a ‘bigger better stadium’ in a ‘better location’would increase attendances - let alone be financially possible.

The Broncos deliver rugby coaching & learning mentoring sessions in a ‘few’ primary schools in Ealing & surrounding area - it gets very positive feedback from the kids & schools, undoubtably making a difference to the young kids life outcomes - however is not publicised anywhere enough on their own social media platforms to get noticed by anyone outside of the individual schools involved, let alone the printed press metro/local newspapers. In terms of increasing Broncos game day attendance figures it is not delivered by a big enough team of coaches to make any real impact - one of the academy players is regularly in schools 3/4 times a week & some 1st team players drop in to schools/junior clubs for odd sessions. Realistically it is really all down to money. Without a massive injection of funds from the RFL (which probably can’t afford it) to put development officers in school partnerships for the long term, rugby league for london juniors is going to remain a niche sport, mainly played in their union off season.

Have heard 1st hand from the schools involved that the kids are really enjoying the rugby sessions and the literacy work is helping. Broncos should be publicising the community work in schools a lot more.

Bienek got injured at Hull, after rehab/recovery he went on loan to Batley. From what I saw of him at London in the academy he will be a success.

This is a pretty fair assessment of where Skolars are at currently. I really rate the Broncos youngsters Hindmarsh, Meadows, Boafo as great prospects, but they are on the way up at the beginning of their professional careers. The Broncos u19s with ~5 Broncos u20/21 1st teamers hammered Skolars in the 1st half of a pre season friendly . It was only in 2nd half of the friendly when the Broncos largely put on the younger 17yr olds that Skolars had their fight back. The supporters frustration is two part. Skolars again were good in the 1st half today and I thought they were going to win comfortably, but it fell apart completely in the 2nd half a trend that was common last season. Secondly a couple of seasons ago, Skolars finished in the top half of table and were starting to really threaten and beat some of the heartland teams - I don’t see any real progression. Undoubtably league 1 has got stronger in this time and it is starting to be perhaps generous to say Skolars have hit a plateau, when realistically they may have fallen further behind and the gap is widening. I really hope Skolars can turn it around. They do a great job to raise the profile of rugby league in North/East London at school, community and open age level on a very limited budget and the club seems to be run on a sensible financial plan that puts the long term future of the club at its heart.

I don’t know much about Thunder although they seem to be doing great things off the field to raise participation & have heavily invested in a promotion push. However, Mr Payne has been there a long time through the hard times in the past & his Northumbria university team seem to have won pretty much almost everything going consistently for the last 3 years - getting the sack after 2 games seems to show a real lack of loyalty. There are comments on the thread about Newcastle’s ex superleague players/championship level players should be beating the likes of ‘Coventry’ - perhaps there is more a case for the younger Coventry team (& the Broncos dual reg players like James Meadows, Rob Butler, Sam Davis) being ‘on the way up/improving’ where the ex superleague players/championship level players are winding down their careers?

From Twitter...7 former and current Broncos in today's Coventry winning team: Sam, James, Rob, Kam PP, Ollie, Ben Gray & Jacob Jones... Kudos to the Broncos academy production line - really pleasing to see southern players who are staying in the game even if they don’t quite make it with the Broncos.

I’m just trying to see if anyone knew why they left Skolars?

I think the Broncos released him. His younger brother Kai is in the Broncos u19s & usually one of their best players.

Tying in with this... Coventry had a few ex Skolars players in the team today (I think from my previous Skolars visits I’ve noticed, Hall & Purslow on the Skolars teamsheet before - I’m not 100% certain) did Skolars release these players or did the players choose to move themselves?

Great result for Bears & 3 of the Broncos youngsters on DR. Newcastle signed a lot of players in the off season, but do Newcastle DR with anyone?

How did Hindmarsh & Boafo, the youngsters from Broncos do?

For 2019, parking at the ground is only available online before each match £5. Parking CANNOT be paid for at the gate. Last time I was there, parking around the ground in residential areas & side streets was free on Sundays. If taking public transport, take tube to Ealing Broadway then E2/E9/E10 or 297 bus. (Or it’s about a 20 min walk from Ealing Broadway to trailfinders.)