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Sigh, not again ..

I am not sure there is any measure that a company or individual can look at the RFL and RL in England and think that there would be a few dollars to be made.

They have the RFLs pathway that they will be utilising, which I believe links up with local colleges, etc. The RFL have now said that LB may get more out of this pathway than an Elite Academy, for substantially less money.

We (London) will perhaps show off the design before Christmas, but the shirt won't be able to be bought until February. Bit of a joke that you can't buy a single bit of London Broncos merchandise from the official store right now. All I wanted was a hat to replace the one I lost in Toulouse.

Is that the SL Leigh? Not sure you can compare 150+ people applying for a SL reserves team and junior numbers and reserves at 2 local amateur teams.

Pretty much this. The club put out a "call" to supporters to get their opinions, etc. a few days ago which I responded to - What they want to know that they couldn't get from the LBSA, I have no idea. It is just a bit of a joke decision, and I cannot really understand it from a standpoint of wanting London RL to continue to grow and produce players like KPP and the many others that are playing in SL and other leagues. I feel stupid for feeling quite emotional about this decision, and I think it is because of the make up of our current squad, and the idea of us bringing back all these London juniors at other clubs, bringing them home to play in SL, and then also saying - No more of you anymore.

You seem to care, and know an awful amount about an area of the sport that you "will never watch".

I remember a Salford V Harlequins match at the Willows that ended something like 2 - 5 which I was there for, definitely my lowest scoring match I have seen. I believe it was when we had Henry Paul playing for us.

I can understand on one hand that DH is seeing a 250k spend and thinking - why bother when we're getting relegated anyway, but on the other hand .... I don't think London Broncos would still be around if he had stopped paying for the academy years ago. The only way we have been chugging along in the championship is that we are employing southern born players, and not having a team full of northerners that cost more. I believe DH was saying Wellington Albert was our highest paid player last year (he wasn't pleased with his performances over the year), he also mentioned it cost a lot more to employ northern players - as it usually means they have to rent houses for players to share, or they have to rent bigger properties for those with families, or if they aren't providing the housing - they have to pay a lot more for them to move to London with the price difference. We may be able to survive 1 or 2 years without an accademy, survivng off previous graduates, etc. But after that, we aren't able to function with a majority of northerner's anymore. And like other people on this thread have mentioned - It isn't going to be a straight swap of 250k from academy to marketing, etc. It will just be DH not spending that 250k. Ah, in a year of promotion back to SL, it is depressing to be a London RL fan.

How old are you? If I'm not being rude. Everyone always thinks that it was better in their day.

I was quite excited about this upcoming SL season, even with knowledge that we are going to lose by 50 most weeks. If they are shutting up the academy/scholarship then I might be done. You can't proudly boast about how all these London/Southern players got us to SL while shutting down the pathways they came through.

Yes, everything that happened to Skolars was because of the Broncos...

That's a bit sad. Never? I guess I can understand your dislike of the IMG system if you think we are never going to grow as a sport, and have already hit the peak.

The thing you're forgetting is that even PL clubs have youth players that can be on very low wages. A 17/8 yr old isn't going to make huge amounts unless they are at one of biggest clubs.

To be fair - I wouldn't be surprised if they did every now and then. They are more obsessed with how much their players are making in general, so will most likely be interested in the lowest paid players as well. I seem to remember a Youtube short video discussing the lowest paid players in the PL a few seasons ago, and it was a Brighton player that was making just over minimum wage p/a.

Not sure if it was ever raised again from the 15k they lowered it to during covid

Question is - What do we even have to work with next year? God knows when I as a London based fan will next get to watch England play live again. 5 + years?

To be honest - I am sure there is a lot of money in the US for the NRL if they are able to leverage it from betting companies. I was very surprised earlier this year when a friend I have in Ohio messaged me asking about the NRL as they had them on their "draft picks" or whatever betting site he was using. He wanted to watch the game live with me rather than just seeing if he picked the right winner, etc. Super League has never been able to do anything abroad because IMO, you can't get attached to a league, or a team if you can't even get the option to watch them most weeks, if not every week. American's and Canadians that I have known have thought it strange that we would televise our game, but not all games, so they couldn't watch the team I supported. Hopefully with us having our games in a more broadcast standard for all, it will eventually get to the point of being able to grow more internationally as a League and the teams/players in it.

I imagine Clark would have preferred to move to Saints to win SL. No ideas on salaries between the two, but Saints need someone to cover adequately in the short term before their new Roby comes off their production line*. From Wire's side.. I am not sure of what they gain - a steady 9 when Walker needs spelling? I don't think it is a great signing from a team that are trying to win SL. But I guess they may see his experience as being valuable for Walker as they are quite different in their skill sets, etc. *(Just for clarification, I have no idea who is on the Saints production line)

It is truly depressing where the international game has ended up for us here in the UK isn't it. God knows what would be the best solution - I can honestly say that I wouldn't be interested in a Lebanon tour/game over here, I understand that they are "free" but it would be so uncompetitive it wouldn't even be fun I don't think. France in France is the probably best of a bad bunch post-season, but it isn't exactly a competitive fixture for England to have.

I can potentially see this as some kind of mid season game, but honestly - It doesn't have any legs. You can't play a game like Yorks v Lancs outside of those areas, as honestly - no one else will be all that interested when hearing the "team" names. But I highly doubt there will be enough people within those areas that would be that interested in turning out to watch it either, if they aren't that bothered about seeing England v Tonga in those areas.

I'm not sure why having the Union WC in France would have stopped France organising a game against Tonga in RL. If anything, they might have ended up wanted to see another French team playing rugby as theirs didn't get to the final as they hoped.

Especially as Southern players have been playing in Lancs v Yorks games for years at academy level.

What bit? The "IMO"? That's kind of the point of a forum, but ok.

I agree with Damien on this one. Powell is a solid, dependable 9, but he has never been good enough to be Wigans first choice for so many years. If he wasn't a Wigan trained player, they would have let him go a long time ago IMO.