LONCON BRONCOS coach Mike Eccles is determined to look on the bright side, despite it being almost impossible for his club to remain in Super League in 2025.
In the first club gradings revealed last week, the Championship winners received a score of only 8.07, which put them 24th out of all clubs.
Regardless of how well they perform in 2024, the Broncos’ top-flight stay is likely to end after one season, but Eccles is refusing to throw the towel in.
“It’s a mountain to climb but we are up for it,” Eccles told League Express.
“We can surprise people, as we did before.
“We will have a meeting on Tuesday at which we will plan our strategy, but at this stage it looks as though we will be a full-time club with a handful of part-time players.”
So far, the Broncos have recruited their former player Sadiq Adebiyi from Keighley.
“We have to be sensible about this; two or three players have part-time contracts that we will honour,” added Eccles.
“If we can couple our performance with a strategic plan, then we can gather grading points more quickly.”
But Eccles admits to disappointment with some aspects of the grading system.
“Unfortunately for us, we invest a lot of money into an Academy, which we don’t get grading points for. But there is nothing we can do about that,” he said.
“And we are disappointed that we didn’t get maximum points for catchment area.”
The Broncos’ catchment area for grading purposes is defined as the London Borough of Merton, which is where their Wimbledon home is situated.
Merton has a population of 215,324, which falls below the threshold of 260,000 that would enable a club to be allocated 1.5 points.
“In reality, everything south of the Midlands is Broncos’ territory,” said Eccles.
“That aside, there is no moaning from us. We are just going to gather points to set us up properly. The central distribution is going down time after time so we recognise that something has to change.
“It is in the best interests of the game that we all jump on board and I will do my best with what I’m given.
“We are disappointed with the grading result, but we are absolutely on board and we will have a real go at this. We will pull together and will do our best to retain our Super League status.”