London (Merged Threads)

[The Blues Ox]

2 hours ago, Leonard said:

If (and big if) we go up - we'll get a couple of bang average aussies, some of wakey's squad and convince a few of the PT players to go FT. The rest of the PT players will leave.

We'll get pumped week in and week out with crowds falling off and then be in a worse position than when we went up as half the squad we had will have left.

That's the fear and probable outcome.

 

 

1 hour ago, Leonard said:

Hopefully.

But realistically we would be looking at finishing above Cas - so unless we beat them home and away would be difficult.

I think London going up is actually a scenario that the RFL would rather avoid at this point. There is little incentive for them to be anything other than a part time team in SL as it seems to be pretty easy to predict that they wont be anywhere near the 12th placed team in the IMG rankings so staying part time and banking the funding seems like a no brainer. 

[Guest]

Just now, The Blues Ox said:

 

I think London going up is actually a scenario that the RFL would rather avoid at this point. There is little incentive for them to be anything other than a part time team in SL as it seems to be pretty easy to predict that they wont be anywhere near the 12th placed team in the IMG rankings so staying part time and banking the funding seems like a no brainer. 

yup.

[Mark S]

The RFL seem to be happy with the sport being a load of rough northerners running round t’pitch, whilst spectators stand and moan about how things were better in t’old days.

[tim2]

10 hours ago, OnStrike said:

Wasn't that mainly funded by the Sports Council? So when the government started slashing funding to that body, the RFL had no way of keeping that set up going. That was my understanding of it anyway

There are always choices.

[17 stone giant]

Read on the BBC website that London Roosters wheelchair team had lost to Wigan Warriors in the Super League SF.

Presumably they're not connected to London Broncos at all?

[OnStrike]

On 09/10/2023 at 17:12, tim2 said:

There are always choices.

Not if you're skint!

[lucky 7]

On 09/10/2023 at 11:36, Leonard said:

To get promoted and then stay up based upon the fragrances in the gents wouldn't be right for me. 

I get licensing and the such - but to get pumped and then to be left in above Cas, say, just because their ground is a dump would be odd.

Cas have had plenty of years to upgrade their ground, but prefered to spend money on has beens and never was players from the NRL

[lucky 7]

On 09/10/2023 at 05:10, Colin James said:

London had 20 years in SL and we have nothing to show for it. What's potentially going to be different this time? I'd love a strong London team but it's hard to see how they could have come away with less after that level of investment and opportunity. I suppose the argument is that the threat of relegation is the reason they can't get 1000 home fans through the gate or settle in one location.

I would say that the Broncos has produced more super league players through their juniors than either Salford or Leigh

[The Blues Ox]

1 hour ago, lucky 7 said:

I would say that the Broncos has produced more super league players through their juniors than either Salford or Leigh

How many players per square mile though in comparison?

[Colin James]

1 hour ago, lucky 7 said:

I would say that the Broncos has produced more super league players through their juniors than either Salford or Leigh

And so they should. You can't compare 20 years at the top table with a couple of relegation seasons in the case of Leigh.  

As the closest club for 10 million+ people it's the least you expect that they produce a few players.

[dealwithit]

I don’t buy this idea that London won’t obtain enough IMG points to stay up. There’s a lot of reading between the lines being done on here than anything factual or public. We all know the broad categories, but no one here has a copy of the calculator. 

[Guest]

57 minutes ago, dealwithit said:

I don’t buy this idea that London won’t obtain enough IMG points to stay up. There’s a lot of reading between the lines being done on here than anything factual or public. We all know the broad categories, but no one here has a copy of the calculator. 

I think attendance will kill them unless they pull a miracle and get at least 5,000 at each home game.

[Archie Gordon]

Fandom and Finances ought to place them about 18th. And they won't make much ground up on the other categories.

[Toby Chopra]

2 hours ago, dealwithit said:

I don’t buy this idea that London won’t obtain enough IMG points to stay up. There’s a lot of reading between the lines being done on here than anything factual or public. We all know the broad categories, but no one here has a copy of the calculator. 

The detailed scoring criteria have been published and most of them are things that are either in the public domain or we can make a very accurate stab at. We can work it out with 90% accuracy, and unless London do a Leigh in SL and Wakey crash and burn in the Championship it's almost impossible for them to stay up.

https://www.rugby-league.com/uploads/docs/Grading Handbook (Final Version).pdf

[crashmon]

1 hour ago, NW10LDN said:

I think attendance will kill them unless they pull a miracle and get at least 5,000 at each home game.

If we (London) put say 2000 carboard cutouts of Big Cliffy at both ends of PL, and had a Tannoy go every 5 mins with "Your a khazy ref" could we have that count as attendance?

[Toby Chopra]

30 minutes ago, Archie Gordon said:

Fandom and Finances ought to place them about 18th. And they won't make much ground up on the other categories.

From what I can see the only categories they'd outscore Wakey in are non-central turnover share - cos they get almost nothing central - and catchment. In total it would be an advantage of about 1.6 points. 

Because of the 3 year average, fandom, performance and finance should see Wakey comfortably overhaul that, plus a little stadium bonus for primacy of tenure.

Which is why David Hughes should go for broke - he's spent enough aimlessly over the years so now do it when it really matters - and try and not finish bottom 

If London could finish 9th or 10th, and Wakey slip up in the Championship as we've seen with Fev it happens - then there's a chance.

[The Blues Ox]

27 minutes ago, crashmon said:

If we (London) put say 2000 carboard cutouts of Big Cliffy at both ends of PL, and had a Tannoy go every 5 mins with "Your a khazy ref" could we have that count as attendance?

I wouldn't go to such lengths, just do what Bradford do and announce a crowd twice as big as the number of people actually in the ground.

[Dr Tim Whatley]

On 09/10/2023 at 11:09, londonrlfan said:

There's always been great potential, but it's never been harnessed correctly. If only we had an Eric Perez of our own on board. I'm surprised he's never thought about London tbh. 

Southend were recently bought out by an Aussie, surely London could have as much potential if we could get similar backers. 

A London RL team would kill for the crowds we're able to pull in at Roots Hall. Over 6,000 the other night for a team who, at kick-off, were in the relegation zone of the fifth tier.

London maybe got near that number a few times in the old Bronquins days?

To be clear - I'd love to see London getting back to those sorts of numbers but it is a long long road back.

[Rovers13]

Lots of ground work needs to be put into London, expansion needs a lot of attention not sure lots of money, but by ground work I mean get out find out where in London theirs an appetite for RL do things like surveys etc post leaflets etc, theirs loads that could be done but like any other expansion team we just expect them to flourish with no hard work, the Quins days weren’t great for crowds for a place of london’s size but at least their was a bit of appetite for RL in that part of London, Moving away from their prob sent them back 10 years tbh. 

[Dr Tim Whatley]

3 minutes ago, Rovers13 said:

 the Quins days weren’t great for crowds for a place of london’s size but at least their was a bit of appetite for RL in that part of London, Moving away from their prob sent them back 10 years tbh. 

Yeah, plenty of days at The Stoop where as fans we'd be disappointed with crowds around the 3k mark. What London would do for that sort of support now.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

On 09/10/2023 at 13:19, The Blues Ox said:

 

I think London going up is actually a scenario that the RFL would rather avoid at this point. There is little incentive for them to be anything other than a part time team in SL as it seems to be pretty easy to predict that they wont be anywhere near the 12th placed team in the IMG rankings so staying part time and banking the funding seems like a no brainer. 

Totally disagree.

London will be full time if we win. Hughes will see to that 

London winning tomorrow would be by far the better option 

[The Blues Ox]

31 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Totally disagree.

London will be full time if we win. Hughes will see to that 

London winning tomorrow would be by far the better option 

Im not sure the benefit of having London in SL for just one season though? What happens the following season when they are back in the Championship? Stay full time or lose all their players and have a mad scramble around to try and persuade players to move down to London? I'm leaning towards wanting London to win but then blowing their funding money on players would seem the height of stupidity given they won't be close to the top 12 teams on the gradings.

[The Phantom Horseman]

On 12/10/2023 at 09:03, Toby Chopra said:

From what I can see the only categories they'd outscore Wakey in are non-central turnover share - cos they get almost nothing central - and catchment. In total it would be an advantage of about 1.6 points. 

Because of the 3 year average, fandom, performance and finance should see Wakey comfortably overhaul that, plus a little stadium bonus for primacy of tenure.

Which is why David Hughes should go for broke - he's spent enough aimlessly over the years so now do it when it really matters - and try and not finish bottom 

If London could finish 9th or 10th, and Wakey slip up in the Championship as we've seen with Fev it happens - then there's a chance.

If London went up and finished 9th or 10th in SL, I still don't think that would help them much. Remember, it's averaged over the last 3 seasons, and London finished 11th in the Championship last year (23rd overall).

[yipyee]

On 09/10/2023 at 05:10, Colin James said:

London had 20 years in SL and we have nothing to show for it. What's potentially going to be different this time? I'd love a strong London team but it's hard to see how they could have come away with less after that level of investment and opportunity. I suppose the argument is that the threat of relegation is the reason they can't get 1000 home fans through the gate or settle in one location.

LMS , Clubb, miski ? And a lot of other players, national recognition,  I  agree with moving around it isn't good but you can't knock the growth and improvement,  infact its the rfl failure to have internationals in the capital thats the failure 

[dead man inc]

On 09/10/2023 at 05:10, Colin James said:

London had 20 years in SL and we have nothing to show for it. What's potentially going to be different this time? I'd love a strong London team but it's hard to see how they could have come away with less after that level of investment and opportunity. I suppose the argument is that the threat of relegation is the reason they can't get 1000 home fans through the gate or settle in one location.

London may have & still been run like a basket case, their move to part time may have been a significant contributing factor in Skolars demise, but to say achieved nothing may be rather harsh…

(information below copied from another site)

‘Random bit of trivia - Wigan's win last night continues a run now extending to 6 years of having a London junior league product winning the Super League grand final

2023 Pearce-Paul
2019-2022 LMS x4 
2018 Sarginson & Clubb

In 2017 Mike McMeeken was on the losing side which broke the winning run. He was also on the losing side in 2021 and 2023.

Pearce-Paul & McMeeken last night also continue a run of 10 consecutive Grand Finals that have had at least one London junior league product playing:

2016 Sarginson (Winning team)
2015 Clubb (Losing team)
2014 LMS (Winning team), Sarginson & Clubb (Losing team)

The last GF not to feature a a player who started in the London junior league was 2013’