LONDON BRONCOS head coach Mike Eccles has confirmed that the club are putting together a proposal that could give them “an opportunity” to stay in Super League.
The capital club have put together a bit-part team in record time since securing promotion from the Championship towards the back end of 2023.
However, with new rugby league stakeholders, IMG, putting a plan in place that would see London relegated from the top flight due to a lack of points around the five pillars, controversy has reigned supreme about the direction that the sport is going in.
That has since been compounded by the fact that the Broncos beat Hull FC last weekend, who, under the current guidelines, would be classed as a Grade A club and therefore exempt from relegation at the end of the season regardless of where they finish on the ladder.
Now, Eccles, speaking on Sky Sports’ The Verdict, has explained why the IMG plan was “disappointing”.
“It took me a bit off-guard to be honest with you, surrounding the IMG stuff,” Eccles said.
“We’ve kept people part-time this year. We know what 2025 will involve, we’re going to be relegated.
“It took the sporting element out of the season for us and the competition, which is disappointing.”
The London boss revealed just how difficult the task has been for the capital club since securing promotion from the Championship.
“We took our time to digest that information and then trying to build a squad with limited time as well, with that knowledge and realisation that we probably can’t go full-time here.
“We had to go for a more hybrid approach just to keep some of our part-time players: A, because they were some of our best players and B, because the 2025 season was so insecure for us.
“Extremely difficult, and something I can’t pick up the phone and ask anybody for advice about because no-one’s ever been through this.”
Eccles also revealed that the club is putting together a proposal to the powers-that-be over potentially staying in Super League.
He revealed: “We’re getting on with it, the club is putting together a proposal of where we think we should go and hopefully give us a bit of an opportunity to stay in the competition.”
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