By STEPHEN IBBETSON
THE start of the club-grading era will have winners and losers, but the team taking the biggest hit will undoubtedly be London Broncos.
And coach Mike Eccles has laid out just how big a setback it will be when they are ushered out of Super League in a few weeks’ time.
Their unexpected promotion from the Championship last season, with a part-time squad, was an exceptional story but may prove quite damaging in the long run.
The uncertainty right now – less so which division they will be in, which is fairly clear, but what their funding will be, with no confirmation forthcoming on what form parachute payments may take, if they are given out at all – means they are ill-prepared for what lies ahead.
Furthermore, the performances of many players has attracted interest from elsewhere, with the likes of Oli Leyland and Josh Rourke tipped to join Oli’s brother Bill Leyland in moving north to further their top-flight careers.
“I’m losing a player a week,” said Eccles.
“We’re not recruiting and we’re not retaining for next year.
“We’re still fighting off the field to see what can be done, but it’s an insecure future.
“I’m as proud as punch for the players to be putting their hands up to be Super League players of the future, even if the Broncos go down. But my job is to do the best for London and it’s not great to be losing them.
“We identify talent early and bring it in and develop it. We produce our own players. Losing those players, whether they’ve been here for a year, two years, five years, is disappointing, but it is what it is.
“Until we get some stability around us as a club and where we sit within the structure of the competition, that’s going to happen naturally.”
Eccles sympathises with Broncos owner David Hughes, who continues to prop up the club but is understandably reluctant to keep piling in money with limited reward.
“The costings of London year on year need that investment that you get from being in Super League,” said the coach.
“We have sponsorship and gate receipts but we still need that cash injection to be sustainable. And everything is falling on David Hughes.
“Not knowing even the parachute payment, which we used to know in the past, how can you plan? David once again is going to have to prop up almost all the costs.
“As I’ve said from the start, it’s actually hindered us. The system with grading that should give more security has actually hurt us.
“Just put yourself in (Hughes’) shoes for two minutes. I always say that his investment is for the game. He’s a Rugby League man.
“He watches every NRL game, every Super League game, and if the Championship was on he’d watch every game. He sees all the results. He never misses a beat.
“He’s from Swinton himself, he’s a northerner in London who just wants to see the sport played where he’s lived and worked for so many years. We’re very lucky to have him.
“I don’t know if this is the way he’s feeling, but he must feel like you’re turning your back on him with the way things have unfolded, without much explanation around it or support to get to where the club needs to be.
“It feels like it’s just all on the clubs. For us, in such a big pond, it’s a daunting prospect to take that on your own. But that’s where we’re at.”
Eccles is not against the principle of club grading as such, but remains firmly against some of its metrics – like the lunacy of the Broncos not receiving full marks for catchment area because it is measured by local authority – and the in-built advantage for established Super League clubs.
“I’m actually an advocate for raising standards, but some decisions don’t add up,” he said.
“Without having shots at other clubs, you’ve got some who have gone under who were ahead of us in the ratings. You’ve got clubs who don’t have ambition to get to the promised land.
“Not getting the catchment points and things like that, I must sound like a broken record but it’s hard to take.
“We know it’s three, four, five years away from London returning to Super League. That’s if it’s achievable.
“So you go into next season thinking ‘what is the ambition? How long will it take? Can we genuinely get to the promised land again?’
“You need 7,500 fans watching Championship rugby which is unrealistic. Unless you spend £3m on a Championship team and bring in global superstars, you’re not going to attract that fandom, but if you do that, your business model is off because you’re spending so much.
“It all feeds into the cycle. Getting those points, the biggest leg-up is being in Super League for the three years prior to the gradings being done.”
London beat the odds to earn their Super League place – “we got promoted spending a third of what our other two main competitors spent on players” – but it’s nothing like how the odds have been stacked against them on the field this season.
They went into Magic Weekend with 19 defeats from 21 games, but Eccles is proud of how his group has risen to the challenge this season and improved as the year has gone by.
“We’re spending at least half, if not a third or a quarter of what other teams are spending,” he said.
“Who in their right mind wouldn’t have predicted us to finish bottom? We’ve got a team full of players who have never played Super League.
“The pressure has never been on us from that perspective. The pressure has always been internal, improving performances and being the best version of ourselves.
“We’re all cutting our teeth, not just the players. We’ve all learned so much.
“Early on when it was wetter we struggled with the physicality, then as the pitches dried up it was the pace of the rucks. We feel we’ve caught up with the physicality. Now we’re up to speed with the game.
“We’ve learned with each part of the season. We just want to put our best rugby on display now for these last few matches.”
Through it all, Eccles remains proud and happy to be leading London and intends to remain for whatever is thrown at them next.
“I’m contracted and I’m invested,” he said.
“I’m as frustrated as David Hughes, as Jason (Loubser) our CEO, as all the players. Not having clarity on where we are next year is difficult, but I’m incredibly proud to be doing what I’m doing and leading the charge for us in difficult times.
“I’m frustrated but not unhappy in the role at all. I feel privileged to be doing it.”
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