Templegreen

interesting few weeks for Midlands & Skolars coming up. I expected Midlands to do better this year - i was confident they would win against a few heartland established teams & be in the top half of the table. Their recruitment was strong & their squad is significsntjy better than last years. Just doesn’t seem to have clicked consistently through the whole game. If they can win their run in games it would really be a statement of intent about what could be possible next year. Skolars lost their coach & squad was decimated, pretty much starting from scratch. If they can beat Oldham tomorrow & beat Midlands (both very difficult, but both also winnable) i think they will have had a great season compared to where they were on day 1.

Really well deserved win from the hurricanes - how many did they have on loan? (not a dig, most teams are doing it - just curious about who played) Are Hunslet really poor (i think that’s a harsh assessment) - or just living within their means after a drop in central funding from around £80,000 to £ £18,000 -I think a few of the so called established northern teams that are having a slightly disappointing season are just cutting their cloth accordingly to the budget in terms of who they can afford to sign.

Excuse my ignorance, but when are the deadlines for signings/loans/dr? and are the deadlines for signings/loans/dr the same in SL/champ/L1 ?

One of my wife’s colleagues does the football game day doctor equivalent - i don’t know how much the RFL course costs, but she also has to pay out about £2000 a year for the necessary game day insurance (this is doctor specific and covers the doctor not the club). With only 2 semi professional rugby league games a week at most in London i can’t see many doctors willing to pay for it unless they have already got sone kind of regular commitment from Broncos/Skolars. It’s also interesting to note that Skolars mentioned Eid as a reason for not being able to secure a replacement doctor - my wife’s college told her that they earned £1500 on the Eid Saturday covering a NHS shift through an agency!

I’m not defending Skolars, the bottom line is the buck stops with them & it is their responsibility to have medical cover in place. However, I know for a fact that the opposition & the RFL were kept informed & updated as the situation progressed. As i stated previous - Skolars need to be accountable for the game being cancelled, but reading between the lines i think very little support was given to them when they raised the problem & sought help to resolve it.

Midlands have recruited well this year, I’ve seen them play twice this season i& though they looked strong & growing in confidence. I think it would have been a good close game without resorting to using 4 castleford players.

Nope, it’s ###### . Not having a go at Midlands specifically as it seems to be rife at quite a few teams atm. I don’t have a favourite L1 team, but tend to catch about 10 L1 games a season depending on where i’m travelling for work that week. Would much rather all teams played their own squad players to get a really true idea of the ability of each club.

Wasn’t sure i agreed with your prediction - i thought it would be a much closer score line. However just seem Midlands have 4 on loan/dr from Castleford, so think Midlands have a very good chance of winning now. (I still think loan/dr is abhorrent and a travesty to the true league table)

I have read that Charley Bodman has just signed for Cornwall from Hunslet - seem to recall reading recently about a lot of players recently leaving Hunslet, does anyone know why? Are they not good enough for Hunslet or is something else going on behind the scenes that has meant quite a few have recently left?

Skolars have their 2 best forwards out - Chris Gale (England university session), Lamont Bryan (injured), but have a couple of their old players back from Broncos. It’s going to be a close game & outcome could depend on who Cornwall have got on loan from SL today.

I went to the festival as an neutral observer & it was fantastic to see so many kids from all over the country playing & enjoying the game - really well organised by the southern based volunteers. Was impressed to see Skolars head coach there & one of Skolars players who had played the night before turned up early in the morning to referee The vast vast majority of teams, coaches & parents were absolutely brilliant & really brought into the ‘maximise everyone’s game time/no scores kept/everyone gets equal opportunity to take part’ ethos that was clearly explained by the volunteers/referees & was apparently also clearly communicated through paperwork issues to teams well before the event took place. Sone really positive club social media showing how much the kids enjoyed the festival the pitch walk & the cup finals. The very small minority coaches/parents really did embarrass themselves & the clubs they represent. It was equally disappointing to see sone clubs social media boasting of how they won all/the majority of their games!

Their are rumours of Broncos promising players to Skolars, then taking them back at very short notice. Interesting to see Broncos reserve game got cancelled (not for the 1st time this season) so a number of ex Skolars players could have been made available to them if Broncos were really trying to be supportive. At Skolars training sone of the ex players have started to return, but not clear if this is for good/temporary - suggestion is sone want to return, but not convinced Broncos are making it easy for them to. When Jermaine Coleman was head coach at Skolars, he regularly complained about the lack of support from Broncos in providing loan/DR, seems now he is coaching at Broncos he has a very short memory,

Good to see Broncos get a win today It’s worth noting though that of the 10+ ex Skolars players Broncos took in pre-season, only 2 were in the Broncos team today. Whereas Skolars lost 96-0 to Keighley and of Skolars team, only 3 players were Skolars regulars last season. Although i’m pleased Broncos have won, there is sadness in the manner in which we have behaved this season and i feel we could have done irreparable damage to Skolars future & harmed the development of RL in London

Putting it in context... of today’s Skolars team, only 3 players were regulars last season. Broncos coincidently won today, but of the 10+ ex Skolars players they took - only 2 were in Broncos team today! Its still a shocking result though - the new young Skolars squad need to start putting into practice the basics of simple game management snd damage limitation very soon before a ‘reasonably understanding fan base’ who expected a hard season with many losses become completely disillusioned with the embarrassing blow out score lines.

Thank you for correcting me about Ramsey. The point I was trying to make is that in previous seasons Skolars were able to borrow good young players from Broncos who have since progressed to higher teams (eg M Davis, Butler, Walker, Bienek, Meadows, S Davis, Boafo, Ogden, Hindmarsh etc...) In the past these players were clearly better than Skolars squad & helped improve the teams performance/competitiveness (even if Skolars still lost a lot of games!) Currently the players Broncos are lending Skolars are either ex Skolars players or young reserve players, but they are not noticeably different in ability to the current Skolars squad - it could be argued based on the games I have seen so far that a couple of the current Skolars squad have performed better than the Broncos players on loan. I have watched the Broncos academy and reserve games for a number of seasons – in the past the academy and reserve set up was very professionally run and had a reasonable depth of players (I think the academy team finished 5th a few years ago). Currently the reserve team is mainly made up of ex Skolars players, Broncos Academy players & current Skolars fringe players have been asked to make up the numbers. In all essence it seems that Broncos are running the reserve team purely because the RFL say they must have one to run an academy! Of the 10 ish Skolars players that Broncos took only 3 seem to regularly play for Broncos (Latu, Macani, Grant) A couple of others have played the odd games. Please note - I am not anti Broncos. Since moving down South from Leeds I have been a regular Broncos season ticket holder, I have in the past sponsored Broncos players and I currently have a Broncos season ticket. What disappoints me so much is how far the entire Broncos set up has fallen since our SL season. The move to part time may have been inevitable because of the low crowd numbers, but the manner and the way in which Broncos have gone about it could seriously affect the viability of Skolars and London RL in general. If Broncos self destruct of their own accord that would be terrible, to wipe out Skolars & London RL as well would be unforgivable.

Vharnos & Greenhalgh were both Skolars players last season who Broncos took. Ramsey and Allan are both very young ex Broncos academy players who are in the current Broncos reserve team. Skolars squad players (who have not been needed for the Skolars league 1 fixture) have been asked & been used by Broncos to enable them to field enough players to fulfil reserve team fixtures. Broncos current reserve team is usually made up of players they took from Skolars, their current academy players & Skolars current squad players. (In contrast to when Broncos were full time and their reserve team was made up with a majority of academy graduates who then moved onto reserve contracts. )

Although Skolars are having a tough time at the moment, i think it is important to look at just how badly they were gutted by Broncos - it wasn’t just the coach & a couple of their better players who deserved a chance and realistically had a chance of stepping up that Broncos took. Looking at the current Broncos website squad list, there are 8 players from last years Skolars team. Another Skolars player was originally in there but now has left & has stopped playing league completely. There are also ex Skolars players in the Broncos reserve team. So Broncos took the coach, at least 10 players (i can’t see Broncos reserve squad on their website to get the exact number) & the physio! Skolars then had a few older players retire leaving them with around 3 players who had played the majority of the previous season & sone fringe players who had played the odd games. (As well as an 80% cut in central funding to deal with!) They recruited a very young squad mainly from their junior team/lLondon junior setups, a few Aussie/Kiwi London league players & brought back the odd ex Skolars/Hemel//Oxford players who would not have made the team in the previous seasons, but could help give the young squad some experience & help them learn. This years squad may not be winning, but they seem to be playing as a team, for each other and bearing in mind many have under 5 league 1 level games under their belt, their is potential in many positions. This year is all about team building & getting experience. If Skolars can survive & be viable next season as a club I think they have done an extraordinary job & the board/coach/players/sponsors/volunteers deserve a lot of thanks.

Very tough day for Skolars. North Wales were bigger,stronger, more skilful & vastly more experienced. Even at this early stage they looked very strong top 4/promotion candidates. Skolars only had 2 players on the pitch who played the majority of last season.Broncos move to part time has completely decimated last years team (Broncos even took the physio ) A quick scan of their team sheet had (approximately) 3 players making L1 debut appearances, 3 players making their 2nd L1 appearance and a few more with a very low number of games under their belt at that level. The lack of experience was clearly evident - Im not sure if Skolars completed a set in the 2nd half. They were not going to win this game, but experience would have helped keep the score down through game management that was non existent at times. There were positives to take forward. Skolars kept at it, there was not any arguing among the players which was commonplace last year. The new full back looked very good & their main prop was strong carrying & had to play the full 80 (must have had a massive tackle count.) The season is going to have to be seen as a rebuilding from scratch exercise for a young and inexperienced squad.

Most Skolars fans were completely aware of the challenges they faced even before the drastic cut in central funding & the raiding by Broncos taking the coach/players for 1st & reserve team! The ones i have spoken to just want the club to be able to survive. They see this year as the very start of a new cycle of young inexperienced players. The Hunslet Parkside loss shows where this young group of players is currently, but they did look more like a team & didn’t argue/blame each other or give stupid penalties away, so the new coach does look like he has at least got a team culture started. This year on the pitch is going to be a very steep learning curve for the majority of the new squad, many that have not played a single game at league one level yet. The real achievement is that they are going to be able to put out a team & almost all will be players that have come up through the London juniors/London leagues set up.

Broncos are in even worse shape than is publicly on view and are now having to borrow a significant number of current Skolars players to be able to fulfil their reserve team fixture this weekend - you could not make it up!

If you took the SKY money away from all of the clubs in the pro/semi pro pyramid the vast majority would fail to exist as well.

Has Coates played in his correct position yet? (Rumours circulating from an inside source are that quite a few players are not happy being asked to play out of position) Last year at Coventry he looked really good and one who you felt could step up to the next level.

In the previous 5 seasons ive had a season ticket i think we had a strong enough team to hold our own and compete against teams, but the long term issue seemed to be fitness & collapsing due to ill discipline and then arguing with each other if they went behind. Yesterday it was inexperience (90% of the team have just not played enough at this level yet) and/or ability (Time will tell if the younger players can learn and be coached enough to be competitive with the majority of the L1.) The squad this year on paper is definitely weaker, but they do look more like a team and could have the potential to improve over the next few seasons (if Skolars can survive on reduced funding & if the team can stay together fir a couple of years)

Hunslet Parkside were the better team and deserved to win, very organised, strong and had depth on the bench. The game was closer than score line suggested, think it was 6-12 for a good 3/4 of the game, then Parkside scored and took control. Skolars in context competed well for 3/4 of the game and held their own, but inexperience from a lot of players & simple mistakes cost them at key points. To summarise where Skolars are - only 2 of the Skolars team played in most of last seasons games, one of them their main prop had to play the full 80 as no depth on the bench & paper thin squad. The younger skolars players have under a handful of games at L1 level or none at all. The older players that have come back have some experience which will help the new very young inexperienced squad, but if we are being honest they would not have got in last years squad. This season is going to be difficult, but the new coach does seem to have got them playing as a team, playing for each other & improved the discipline that has been lacking over the last few years. I think the new coach is has actually done well so far in terms of overall performance with the players he has available. It’s definitely a rebuilding season for Skolars where their fans need to be realistic about the significant changes that have been forced on them by Broncos move to p/t status. Perhaps the main thing to take heart from is this season gives these London based young players the opportunity to learn & progress - if Skolars were not around they would all be lost to union.

Only about 3 Skolars players are from last years squad, the rest are either very young players, unproven London amateur league players or old journeymen - it’s going to be very difficult for them today. Injuries to a couple in the last game looks like the team will consist of players, playing out of position today. If i was a betting man, id put money on Parkside.