London Broncos 2024

[sam4731]

Are London going full time next year or are they staying part time?

[Midlands hobo]

If they are going to get booted regardless of finishing position (img) then stay semi pro pocket the cash and set themselves for a good championship.

Down sides nobody will want to pay to see them get spanked week in week out. 

[Tre Cool]

They're mostly full time but keeping a few players on part-time contracts as they have well paying jobs that they don't want to quit for 1 year as a pro in SL before their guaranteed relegation. 

IMGs system is poor imo when London don't get decent points considering their catchment area, good stadium and the unbelievable amount of local players in their squad.

[Coco]

I totally agree. The IMG grading is a joke.  Mr Hughes should tell them to go and get stuffed.  IMG is not a good thing for RFL.  

London Broncos should be in the top ten.  I am just wondering when the RFL decide to cancel the contract.  

London Broncos should be celebrating promotion to Super League, instead the IMG have ruined the celebration.  

[Tre Cool]

16 minutes ago, Coco said:

I totally agree. The IMG grading is a joke.  Mr Hughes should tell them to go and get stuffed.  IMG is not a good thing for RFL.  

London Broncos should be in the top ten.  I am just wondering when the RFL decide to cancel the contract.  

London Broncos should be celebrating promotion to Super League, instead the IMG have ruined the celebration.  

Crazy. 10 million people in the city, the capital and wealthiest city in the UK by far, with no competing RL club, wealthy owner, great stadium, great youth.  They should be the kind of club IMG are rewarding and encouraging.  Not knocking them down for poor social media reach or whatever other BS they've come up with.  Below Barrow, Newcastle, Batley, Doncaster, Sheffield etc. etc. 

[Gomersall]

52 minutes ago, Tre Cool said:

Crazy. 10 million people in the city, the capital and wealthiest city in the UK by far, with no competing RL club, wealthy owner, great stadium, great youth.  They should be the kind of club IMG are rewarding and encouraging.  Not knocking them down for poor social media reach or whatever other BS they've come up with.  Below Barrow, Newcastle, Batley, Doncaster, Sheffield etc. etc. 

I thought IMG were looking to prioritise London?

[Tre Cool]

1 minute ago, Gomersall said:

I thought IMG were looking to prioritise London?

Nope. Only seems to prioritise established SL clubs. Nobody else. Really don't see the point of it.  Driving standards is great in theory but the system's bad.

[Coco]

IMG are a complete joke.  The criteria they have created is a joke.  London Broncos need a lot of support.  They are the only professional rugby league club in London.  That in itself is important.  

This grading they have given the London Broncos is not supporting the club at all.   They have a new stadium.  They have an excellent academy. The current squad has an excellent number of Southern players. How the hell are they been given this grading.  It's disrespectful to Mr Hughes, who has single handley kept the Broncos a float.  

The IMG talk a lot, and it's total ######. 

[phiggins]

2 hours ago, Coco said:

I totally agree. The IMG grading is a joke.  Mr Hughes should tell them to go and get stuffed.  IMG is not a good thing for RFL.  

London Broncos should be in the top ten.  I am just wondering when the RFL decide to cancel the contract.  

London Broncos should be celebrating promotion to Super League, instead the IMG have ruined the celebration.  

 

2 hours ago, Tre Cool said:

Crazy. 10 million people in the city, the capital and wealthiest city in the UK by far, with no competing RL club, wealthy owner, great stadium, great youth.  They should be the kind of club IMG are rewarding and encouraging.  Not knocking them down for poor social media reach or whatever other BS they've come up with.  Below Barrow, Newcastle, Batley, Doncaster, Sheffield etc. etc. 

The situation that London find themselves in next season is ludicrous, and the scoring system is poor. But at the same time, it's a bit of stretch to suggest they would be one of the top 10 clubs. They don't have a completely full time professional playing squad, they struggle for crowds and have regularly found themselves moving stadium. So as good as the facility they're in now is, how long a lease do they have?

[sam4731]

37 minutes ago, phiggins said:

 

The situation that London find themselves in next season is ludicrous, and the scoring system is poor. But at the same time, it's a bit of stretch to suggest they would be one of the top 10 clubs. They don't have a completely full time professional playing squad, they struggle for crowds and have regularly found themselves moving stadium. So as good as the facility they're in now is, how long a lease do they have?

I hate this argument. If they had SL funding they would have a full time squad and who's to say that they wouldn't use that funding more efficiently than just buying a load of NRL rejects.

[Nothus]

Would people still be saying all these things if London lost to Sheffield/Toulouse/Featherstone? I don't think so.

They've earned their place in 2024 - enjoy it. But to suggest that London, in its current guise, is one of the top ten clubs in this country is just not true.

 

 

[JM2010]

2 minutes ago, Nothus said:

Would people still be saying all these things if London lost to Sheffield/Toulouse/Featherstone? I don't think so.

They've earned their place in 2024 - enjoy it. But to suggest that London, in its current guise, is one of the top ten clubs in this country is just not true.

 

 

They’re in the top 11 English clubs next season 

[phiggins]

23 minutes ago, sam4731 said:

I hate this argument. If they had SL funding they would have a full time squad and who's to say that they wouldn't use that funding more efficiently than just buying a load of NRL rejects.

That's fair on the part time / full time players, but the rest stands. They had a number of years with Super League funding, and a significant amount of owner funding, but not convinced much of it has been spent wisely, probably since Lenaghan left. And the difficulty in getting a permanent home in London is an issue.

Also think the suggestion that they have a catchment area of the whole of London is setting them up to fail. A single club won't effectively do that, but they can certainly have a catchment area beyond the boundaries of Merton borough council, and try and attract fans in Lambeth and Wandsworth for a start.

 

[Coco]

London is the biggest city in this country and slowly but surely they are building foundations.  They have a wonderful new stadium. They have a brilliant academy and a squad qualified for Super League.  It's a pathway for London boys to play the game.  They qualified for the right to play in Super League. 

Now some pathetic company comes along and provides a criteria that makes no sense at all. The London Broncos needs support from the English rugby community. They need to see the London Broncos as part of them.  I rather have the club's and fans of these clubs support the Broncos.  The London Broncos are against all odds flaying the flag for Rugby League, in the biggest city in this country.  Time and time again they should of folded. But they never did.  The club needs to be a priority.  

I wonder how much the RFL are paying the IMG for help? 

[Griff]

Do we know what the analysis of London's IMG score is?

[THE RED ROOSTER]

Two points are missing in this thread, firstly as has been discussed ad nauseam on this board London Broncos ownership are the architects of the clulb's downfall.

Secondly, IMG probably wanted different criteria (as they wanted the Magic weekend ended and rightly so) but the club's stepped in and the game has ended up with criteria that favour existing Super League clubs. The question should be at what point does IMG walk away from the game rather than the other way round.

[Coco]

I rather the game walked away from IMG.  The criteria should have all the fans worried what have the RFL got the sport into. 

Don't have a problem with the ownership, just glad they kept the club going without any help from the RFL. I like with what they are doing with the club. Fantastic to see the players they are developing. 

[RayCee]

The current criteria are only provisional so IMG can still tweak the system to give London a fairer score. I assume a new score will be lower than some think it should be but the existing rating of the Broncos seems unreasonable.

[Jeff Stein]

32 minutes ago, THE RED ROOSTER said:

Two points are missing in this thread, firstly as has been discussed ad nauseam on this board London Broncos ownership are the architects of the clulb's downfall.

Secondly, IMG probably wanted different criteria (as they wanted the Magic weekend ended and rightly so) but the club's stepped in and the game has ended up with criteria that favour existing Super League clubs. The question should be at what point does IMG walk away from the game rather than the other way round.

And the third point is that one of the clubs voting for this system was the London Broncos

 

[phiggins]

1 hour ago, RayCee said:

The current criteria are only provisional so IMG can still tweak the system to give London a fairer score. I assume a new score will be lower than some think it should be but the existing rating of the Broncos seems unreasonable.

I thought the scores were provisional, but the criteria was set? 

[sam4731]

1 hour ago, Jeff Stein said:

And the third point is that one of the clubs voting for this system was the London Broncos

 

To be fair, I assume it was beyond Londons wildest dream to be in SL next year. This is actually probably just an acceleration of their long term plans to be a sustainable SL club.

[kiggy]

Still promotion and relegation for next year so they have a chance of staying up

[Toby Chopra]

48 minutes ago, kiggy said:

Still promotion and relegation for next year so they have a chance of staying up

Nope, gradings will set the 2025 line up

[Magic XIII]

IMG are shining a torch on each club. London Broncos (and I am a fan) are not immune to this. We've done well to get promoted, really well. But our preparedness for SL is what it is. We are signing Londoners back who either were cast offs, or who left at the first opportunity and NONE are SL standard, so we can infer David is planning for 25 in Championship and thereafter oblivion. 

[Magic XIII]

On 09/11/2023 at 19:24, sam4731 said:

To be fair, I assume it was beyond Londons wildest dream to be in SL next year. This is actually probably just an acceleration of their long term plans to be a sustainable SL club.

Plans - hahaha