Although relegation was almost guaranteed before a ball was picked up this season, London Broncos have not gone down without a fight.
AFTER one season back in Super League, London Broncos look set to return to the Championship in 2025.
This year began with a baptism of fire, losing all 10 of their opening games back in the top flight, being ‘nilled’ twice in the process as well as by Warrington in the Challenge Cup.
But things did improve, defeating Hull FC in Round 11 and, on the whole, being far more competitive across the remainder of the campaign.
Understandably, there are mixed emotions from Broncos’ Director of Rugby & Performance Mike Eccles as 2024 comes to a close.
“It’s been hard,” he told Rugby League World. “It was really tough, particularly early on when you get to around 10 games in, and you haven’t got a win.
“This season has been a massive improvement from where we were to where we are now. Although we’re not winning many games, we should have won another three or four with the way we’ve been playing.
“You look at the 10 wins we got in 2019 and with a bit of a rub of the green and a few calls going our way, we wouldn’t have been too far off.
“There’s lots of emotions around it. There’s regret around a couple of those games, like Leeds and Hull FC away. At the same time, there are no regrets in how we’ve approached the season.
“We’ve given it absolutely everything and the way we’ve carried ourselves is what I’m most proud of. We’ve not thrown our toys out of the pram at any point, we’ve carried ourselves with pride and dignity, on and off the field.”
London have earned plaudits, both from their fanbase and across the sport, for their undying spirit, thoughts echoed by Eccles.
“I call them champions all the time. They’re absolute champions, my group and staff.
“They’ve had so much adversity, on and off the field, as a group. We’ve had no negativity or negative press around us. They’ve been incredible and I think everyone can see that.
“My biggest focus has been keeping the boys together and demanding how we react and respond. We as staff lead the way.”
Another positive for the club has been the momentum built in their community this term, with just short of 4,500 fans seeing the Broncos close out their home campaign with a golden point defeat against Leeds.
“I’m so proud of what the club have put on this year. We struggled a couple of times through the summer, we had our lowest crowd against Leigh and our Salford and Huddersfield crowds weren’t great either.
“There was a big promotion push for the [first] Catalans game with lots of free tickets for kids and things like that. The Leeds game was probably our biggest ‘true’ crowd.
“The game day experience has been fabulous. People really enjoy coming to London and our home crowd has grown naturally. People couldn’t believe you can just have a beer in the sun and watch this kind of sport. How we don’t sell it more as a game is a mystery when you’ve got a product like that.”
For Eccles, as well as no doubt the London faithful, it’s hard not to wonder how the Broncos might have fared if they were at their current levels throughout the campaign.
“We were never going to transform an entirely Championship squad into a Super League team overnight. There was no guarantee we were going to do it at all, but I think we’ve achieved that. I genuinely think that the team out there, with a handful of Super League or NRL appearances between them, is now operating at Super League level and I think that’s a massive success.
“If we were halfway through the season, I think we’d be able to push off the bottom of the table quite comfortably. It’s been a steep learning curve. I think we’ve learned more than anybody this season. It’s just a shame that we’re going to be expressing that with different clubs moving forward.”
That leads into the final, and sadly most pressing, topic of discussion.
London are Championship-bound and promotion and relegation is being scrapped in favour of the IMG gradings system – a decision that recently came under criticism from outgoing RFL President Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP.
So, what’s next for the Broncos?
“I honestly don’t know. I’m not being disingenuous; I don’t know what the future is going to look like.
“Seeing new faces coming through the door and in Broncos shirts has been absolutely magic but it’s going to be difficult to do that back in the Championship.
“The biggest regret is not having the ability to build on it. Right now, I think we’re turning our backs on something which could be very, very special given a three-year building block.
“We know how to do it in terms of needing 7,500 fans and 15 [IMG] points but what we’re saying is that it just seems unachievable. We’d love for someone to come and prove us wrong. We’re going to need someone brave enough to put in a lot of money. We’re talking more money in rugby league than has probably been pumped into any club with the smallest glimmers of hopes of ever getting into Super League.
“I don’t know how London are going to do it but also how Bradford and these other clubs are going to surpass clubs who are in front of them and have the head start of already being in Super League for three years.
“It’s really difficult to accept. Everyone has self-interests, I’ve got self-interests for London. People want it one way for various reasons. Everyone knows that Super League should be 14 teams, but they won’t budge because it spreads the pot thinner. Nobody wants loop fixtures, but they won’t budge on 14 teams because of the money, it’s ridiculous.
“It’s a very insecure future for us and for anybody else currently outside of Super League who has ambitions of being there.”
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 501 (October 2024)
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