DEAN HAWKINS revealed a pre-match talk from ex-London Bronco Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook helped lay the foundations for their 1895 Cup triumph over Widnes Vikings.
Whitechapel-born forward McCarthy-Scarsbrook played for the club from 2006 to 2010 during the Harlequins RL days, before going on to win five Super League Grand Finals and one Challenge Cup during a twelve-year spell with St Helens.
He was invited by head coach Jason Demetriou to present the Broncos players with their shirts ahead of Monday’s 32-10 win over Widnes, and his words resonated with player of the match Hawkins, who was among those brought in as part of a big off-season rebuild.
“One thing I took out of it was, as a London team down south, we were put together in November with boys from everywhere, and we’ve come together and become so close because we spend so much time together,” former Parramatta Eels halfback Hawkins said.
“He said ‘back each other, have each other’s backs out there,’ and I think that showed. The amount of pressure we put on ourselves, we just kept turning up for each other and we got the win.
“We just had to start getting back to completing sets, getting back to our front-foot footy, as we call it, and getting them into the corner.
“Once we started to do that, we started to win back momentum and in the last 20 minutes we just ran away with it. We made it hard for ourselves, but we got the job done.”
Try-scorer Luke Smith, who swapped playing reserve grade at Canterbury Bulldogs for the Broncos over the winter, echoed those sentiments.
The 23-year-old second row hailed London stalwarts Marcus Stock, James Meadows and Sadiq Adebiyi as key to building the connectivity, along with Demetriou, which he hopes will continue to serve the Broncos well as they aim to complete a clean sweep of the second tier’s trophies.
“There were two or three boys who were London homegrown, and London through and through, and they just took lead and got the boys together for weekend activities and in training,” Smith said.
“JD’s coaching methods have been great all year. It’s always been about connection, having a good working environment where everyone wants to come training.
“We’ve had a long season, but to win the League Leaders’ and then the 1895 is great – but we’ve still got one more to trophy to go.”