I, for one, am glad to see someone different in the top 4 at the moment. Whether they will be at the end of the season or not, who knows. TBH Cas don't have a brilliant squad (only carney, huby and Clark stand out for me), but they do have brilliant coach who has got them playing some fantastic rugby.

If Powell's time at fev is anything to go by then cas will do great all season until they get to a final and choke

Sky have always based their TV games on last seasons results, London beat Leeds and draw with Cas that's why they choose those two games.

I can't see why they don't just persist with playing Mikey Bishay and Woodburn-Hall, signing rubbish like Drinkwater and Farrer is making things even worse.

Don't worry, we will have a whole mini-league of these types of games next year to look forward to.

Sky usually schedule the games before the season even starts. They would have looked at the fixtures and picked out London and Cas playing in March to be an early relegation mouth waterer. How wrong they were. The only predictable thing about the opening 5 or 10 games of Super League are their unpredictability.

Not really a surprise. Tony has done some good things as coach, albeit not for a while. However he made no real effort to build up youth development down here in his first spell. Brian Mac did that. Tony has always preferred to ship someone in tbh. I watched several Broncos youth games at Aldershot last season but didn't notice Tony there, I saw Rob Powell there once when coach. Brian Mac did turn up last season to watch London v Leeds. Very different approaches.

In his defence Tony is aware if the damage that can be done to youngsters pushed in too often, particularly in awful teams. He has referred to Olu Iowefenu and Josef Sozi as examples. I'm not sure that defence works re Mikey mind, he's not 18 any more.

The biggest worry is that games like last night do little to quieten the expansion disenters.

"Rugby League in London" is very different to "London Broncos", yet people regularly (deliberately?) confuse the two.

There is no denying that the London Broncos are extremely badly run, but don't let that hide the fact that some amazing work has been done in the capital and SE. It would be a tragedy to lose this on the basis of the cock-ups by Gus Mackay and David Hughes.

Sadly RL down here is not in a good place. The development officers have largely gone. Few amateur teams are stable. The oldest amateur team in London is only 2 or 3 years old believe it or not. Few have a good junior set up, this has definitely declined in recent years. Largely due to the loss of South London who were strong here. Broncos managed to lose Phil Jones, who did an outstanding job.

There are bright spots - outside London but Medway are an admirable club. Oxford are working on a youth set up whilst Hemel continue to build quietly and financially soundly both on and off pitch.

Truth be told my concern is that the Broncos fiasco is distracting attention from the fact RL is wobbling at all levels in London.

The RFL face some huge calls. The talent exists down here. Whether the sport has the desire and / or money to develop it remains to be seen.

Why not. Donny v Fev on Sunday was ten times better than that dross last night.

Im the same as one of the previous posters , I gave it till half time then off it went.

It's not just a London issue but one that is at the root of RL expansion.

Try to think of who was last "new" professional/semi pro RL team in the UK that achieved a credible amount of success on/off field whilst attracting regular crowds of 5k, and then ask why the game hasn't expanded (at pro level)beyond its traditional borders ?

Sheffield Eagles

Gateshead before they were forced in to merging with Hull

Hardly a shining beacon of RL development given their chequered past (Shuddersfield etc) and nomadic status (not dissimilar to London), notwithstanding the tenacity and hard working efforts of individuals to keep them alive over the last 30 yrs.

My point is : show me where RL development in the UK has worked in the last 30 yrs (in terms of the professional game) and then why London has failed, against the success of any other "new" club* ?



*and if Gateshead and Sheffield are the benchmarks the I suggest that London haven't really faired any worse than those.

I have a lot of time for the Skolars, but they were absolutely crap until the London SL outfit started giving then players.....a great number of academy and reserve grade Broncos playing for the Skolars. When Hughes walks away, the production of younger players will dry up in the capital.

And soccer,union and cricket will also follow suit.
The future sport in London is snow boarding closely followed by royal tennis!

David Hughes is the architect of this disaster. He could have made his mind up to continue with the club last October and then some decent players could have been retained (Sarginson, Clubb, Dorn, Robertson, Bailey) and decent new ones purchased. Hughes could have fired the non-performing CEO Gus McKay two years ago. And he could have bought a good coach (e.g. John Kear) instead of the one he is so enamoured with.

Of course if the RFL was run by competent business administrators -- as is the case with the NRL -- the RFL would have found new investors with a business administration background to take a majority interest in London Broncos.

Insightful as ever.

When you have the oracle Insight like me you just have to go with the flow.
Lotto numbers are. ...............

They've been an embarrassment for years, becoming a pseudo RU club ffs! We will finally see this unmitigated failed experiment out of the top flight soon. Hopefully any future expansion clubs will be done much much better.

Ps apologies to those die hard RL fans in London that have stuck by the donkeys. Not nice to see your club wheezing on life support and any decent RL fan will have every empathy with you. Not your fault the club is so poorly run and has been for years.

The club has been kept afloat as a "ghost club" only, I must admit I kinda gave Rea the benefit of the doubt when he talked so positively at the beginning of the season, and I've made every allowance I can. but...................

We have been kept going to simply fulfil the fixture list.

I like Rea, I'll never ever forget he and Branson pulling the team coach over to give my disabled mum a lift up Wembley way, but he's not a coach, nor is he a great motivator, he's tactically woeful and cannot seem to spot real "talent".

Not only are we gonners, but it seems no-one ever intended this season to be anything but, I don't understand why the RFL persuaded Hughes to keep it going, promoting Fev' would have been far better for the game, at least their last minute signings and loanies would have joined an already prepared squad!

I still hanker for 9th, I know not why, but I just do! If it comes true it'll not only be the biggest mystery since the Mary Celeste, but will probably be just a stay of execution til' next year!

Let's not forget Rea wasn't even coaching RL when he was appointed a second time. But having said all that, there are other teams i'd sooner see removed from SL so London could stay up...

Whilst I don't think Rea is a great coach or even really a SL standard coach I think it's a tad harsh to blame him.
The squad he's been given is very very poor. And that's not a condemnation of the players in that squad. There's average players who would normally be squad or fringe players at other clubs but at London are expected to be the leaders and the senior players.
Then you've got a load of youngsters trying to develop.

I've actually been impressed with London's heart by not being totally hammered yet despite going into every game expecting to lose.