David Hughes

[crashmon]

Also are the playing at Wimbledon next year?  I was not sure if that was still the plan, assuming by some miracle they have enough players to actually put out a side. There is no Skolars side they can gut this time

[Damien]

45 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

I've said it several times though, I think Hughes, at least initially, assumed that IMG simply meant just play in a nice stadium and be London and you're in. That's why nearly every other aspect of the club was gutted.

The Grading process exposed that, massively.

I think this is where I lost what sympathy I had for London. They had plenty of chance to at least try and put things right but instead did stuff that they knew would make them worse as a club and cost them points such as scrap the academy. They didn't even try and improve through the process. Even smaller clubs in a worse position who don't have a chance of SL have made far more effort.

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

50 minutes ago, Damien said:

I think this is where I lost what sympathy I had for London. They had plenty of chance to at least try and put things right but instead did stuff that they knew would make them worse as a club and cost them points such as scrap the academy. They didn't even try and improve through the process. Even smaller clubs in a worse position who don't have a chance of SL have made far more effort.

Exactly how many points do you think they lost for not having an academy?

[Damien]

26 minutes ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said:

Exactly how many points do you think they lost for not having an academy?

Weird thing to focus on and spectacularly misses the point.

[Dave T]

26 minutes ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said:

Exactly how many points do you think they lost for not having an academy?

There is a requirement for an RFL approved Talent Pathway for grade A and B clubs. I can only find outdated documents on what that might mean, but it used to include an Academy.

If you don't comply you lose 0.25 in Yr 1 and 0.5 in Yr 2.

[Archie Gordon]

16 minutes ago, Dave T said:

There is a requirement for an RFL approved Talent Pathway for grade A and B clubs. I can only find outdated documents on what that might mean, but it used to include an Academy.

If you don't comply you lose 0.25 in Yr 1 and 0.5 in Yr 2.

In response to the IMG grading, the Broncos scrapped their Academy (annual cost £250-400k) and replaced it with a gradings-compliant Lions Development programme (£25-40k). Through one lens, that was entirely rational.

[Damien]

@Archie Gordon What's so confusing?

[Damien]

38 minutes ago, Dave T said:

There is a requirement for an RFL approved Talent Pathway for grade A and B clubs. I can only find outdated documents on what that might mean, but it used to include an Academy.

If you don't comply you lose 0.25 in Yr 1 and 0.5 in Yr 2.

It isn't just about the academy either, that was one example of the systematic failures and lack of any effort by the club. What you show here really illustrated how all of these fractions of a point that London miss out on across the criteria led to the pathetic score they got.

[Dave T]

22 minutes ago, Archie Gordon said:

In response to the IMG grading, the Broncos scrapped their Academy (annual cost £250-400k) and replaced it with a gradings-compliant Lions Development programme (£25-40k). Through one lens, that was entirely rational.

I have no idea what they talent pathway requirements are as I say, so.i can't discuss that detail much more than I have. Do you have any more detail on TP rqts?

But I do think it also does speak volumes about Hughes rather than anything else. Did they only ever have an academy because it was a black and white reqt from the RFL?

 

[Click]

51 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I have no idea what they talent pathway requirements are as I say, so.i can't discuss that detail much more than I have. Do you have any more detail on TP rqts?

But I do think it also does speak volumes about Hughes rather than anything else. Did they only ever have an academy because it was a black and white reqt from the RFL?

 

I understand why you think that - Personally it was just the next thing for Hughes to wind his spending back on. He had been doing it for years and the next thing was the academy.

[preid]

They got no points for their academy despite it producing multiple top level players over many years so they decided there was no point spending so much money going forward for no (grading) purpose. Similarly, they got minimum points for catchment area because the latter was limited to the borough of Merton which is crazy given their nearest rivals are Midlands and Cornwall. Those two determinations were probably the worst ones decided upon in the whole IMG plan.

 

[Sports Prophet]

5 minutes ago, preid said:

They got no points for their academy despite it producing multiple top level players over many years so they decided there was no point spending so much money going forward for no (grading) purpose. Similarly, they got minimum points for catchment area because the latter was limited to the borough of Merton which is crazy given their nearest rivals are Midlands and Cornwall. Those two determinations were probably the worst ones decided upon in the whole IMG plan.

 

To the best of my knowledge, London Broncos may have been the logo on the jackets of the coaches, but it was the RFL who was really responsible for any London youngster making the grade.

[Dave T]

27 minutes ago, preid said:

They got no points for their academy despite it producing multiple top level players over many years so they decided there was no point spending so much money going forward for no (grading) purpose. Similarly, they got minimum points for catchment area because the latter was limited to the borough of Merton which is crazy given their nearest rivals are Midlands and Cornwall. Those two determinations were probably the worst ones decided upon in the whole IMG plan.

 

If somebody can only see benefits of an academy if it gets points, then that is an issue for them. We haven't seen the likes of Wigan or Saints or Leeds or Wire sack of their academies.

And they didn't get minimum points for catchment, they got the middle tier as far as I'm aware. I do agree that appears too low, but it's not accurate they got the same as village teams.

[Hopie]

If the IMG criteria decide the future of the club, and there are no points for an academy, then why wold teams spend money on an academy that they can spend on other things that get them points? 

The word academy does not appear in the grading criteria handbook.

[Dave T]

16 minutes ago, Hopie said:

If the IMG criteria decide the future of the club, and there are no points for an academy, then why wold teams spend money on an academy that they can spend on other things that get them points? 

The word academy does not appear in the grading criteria handbook.

Ask the clubs who do run academies. 

[Tommygilf]

5 hours ago, Dave T said:

Ask the clubs who do run academies. 

Exactly. You don't get points directly for having a nice hospitality suite either, or a well maintained pitch. Yet the top clubs do this all the time...

It's in clubs' sporting interests to run an academy, IMG aren't there to boost that side of the sport directly.

[Archie Gordon]

I can speak with a liitle knowledge about what Hughes's motivations on the Academy were.

He had funded it for years as a pathway to the Broncos first team. It cost a fair bit of money each year - see numbers above. In later years, when the Broncos were mostly a Champo side, the players produced were being picked up by SL sides for limited compensation. He really didn't like that or think the exchange a fair one. That - plus IMG not recognising the club's long-term investment, effort, and contribution to the wider game in its supply of players - left the old man feeling a bit taken for granted. 

I can see his position tbh. I say that as no fan of Hughes.

[gingerjon]

Just now, Archie Gordon said:

That - plus IMG not recognising the club's long-term investment, effort, and contribution to the wider game in its supply of players - left the old man feeling a bit taken for granted. 

I'd have more sympathy if he hadn't put himself in that position by ignoring pretty much everyone, including probably some who'd bothered to read the IMG proposal he voted for, and run the club as a series on disconnected whims for a decade.

FAFO.

[Griff]

8 hours ago, preid said:

They got no points for their academy despite it producing multiple top level players over many years so they decided there was no point spending so much money going forward for no (grading) purpose. Similarly, they got minimum points for catchment area because the latter was limited to the borough of Merton which is crazy given their nearest rivals are Midlands and Cornwall. Those two determinations were probably the worst ones decided upon in the whole IMG plan.

 

Cornwall is not one of their two nearest rivals. Cornwall is a long way away.

[Archie Gordon]

45 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

I'd have more sympathy if he hadn't put himself in that position by ignoring pretty much everyone, including probably some who'd bothered to read the IMG proposal he voted for, and run the club as a series on disconnected whims for a decade.

FAFO.

I think almost everyone agrees with that.

Trouble is, that guy was funding the Broncos Academy and he has taken his ball away. It was a predictable outcome though nobody appears to have planned for it.

[Click]

9 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

To the best of my knowledge, London Broncos may have been the logo on the jackets of the coaches, but it was the RFL who was really responsible for any London youngster making the grade.

And where do you get this knowledge?

[Archie Gordon]

5 minutes ago, Click said:

And where do you get this knowledge?

I was a bit surprised by that comment.

The Academy looked to be run best when Powell was in charge with Ward and Langley involved on their way up to higher things. The breaking up of the Ward, Langley, Eccles, Powell axis was a bit of a tragedy. 

[Worzel]

14 hours ago, gingerjon said:

I honestly don't understand how anyone is reading this any other way other than your points 1 & 2 above.

It’s bizarre. Actual journalists saying “good news update from London” rather than doing some digging. The club is on a precipice after 44 years. 

[The Future is League]

12 hours ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said:

Exactly how many points do you think they lost for not having an academy?

It was my understanding that you didn't get any points for running an academy as at the times of the gradings Leigh and Salford didn't have academies

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

We are ******* unless some rich Aussie comes along 

I'm out of the habit of going since the PL move anyway