From what I can see we are in strife although to say it would be a bad look if we got kicked out having preformed reasonably well, perhaps not even finished last, would be an understatement. Having said that the rules are there and they can’t work round them without any club who suffers taking legal action. To put it another way it looks bleak. However first things first: recruitment and retention. In recent interview on hybrid working as well as rightly back8ng the team that got promoted by being flexible on FT and PT he mentioned a preference for getting back players who left to get FT action. I’m struggling to think who is still available. Rhys Williams perhaps. Not RIchards who has signed for TO and Battye’s departure was messy. Pitts must want to stay with his home town team and Hankinson is with TO for another year. Would we take back Jones? Or Silva?

Not sure anyone knows what IMG are up to. Do they really have any clout? I’m beginning to think not. What they do with L1 will be interesting.

Teams are ranked 1–36 based on where they finish in the leagues and playoffs for the last three seasons. So no chance of maximum points, we'll get something like 2.5 out of 4 points.



We're probably currently around the 3rd tier of scoring on the digital criteria. If we could more than double our following and engagement it might get us an extra 0.3 points or so.

Yeah I wasn't quite sure who Mike was alluding to when he said that. Rhys is a free agent and might be interested in a year long deal, probably wouldn't cost us a huge amount in terms of a contract.
I liked Richards when he played for us, but he always seemed to be injured. Battye I think is all but signed up for Sheffield and I'm not sure Pitts would really bring us anything we don't already have. I certainly wouldn't want to see him signed at the expense of Natoli or Waine being extended if it came down to that.

I'd like to see Silva return, I thought he really added something when he came back as did Jones. Hopefully our new status makes us a more attractive proposition for our dual-reg partner.
Matt Davis not getting much of a look in at Leigh, maybe an option to bring him back in for the season and would certainly add something.

As it stands I’d fancy you have more chance of staying in SL than Castleford, they have done nothing since the last time we had licensing

Castleford are a real success story. Seem to get pretty much everyone In the town turning up to their games and played decent rugby for a number of years. However, it is difficult to believe that many of their fans would be overly excited about the upcoming season. A cynic would conclude from the squad they have compiled that they intend to drift next year, spend some money on their set up and bank on their meeting the IMG criteria more effectively than London. It is what it is. Hopefully we’ll be able to give them a game.

Yes. I can see Silva and Jones coming back. However whilst decent, not been regulars for their current SL teams so would need to step up and, whilst I might be maligning them from a misunderstanding of the loan system, they both seemed to do one from our squad ASAP to TO and Widnes? respectively which didn’t suggest to me a burning desire for a ‘homecoming’.

Davis would be excellent. If I was him though I think I’d stay at Leigh. He may not be a regular starter but he is a regular in the match day squad and it’s a squad that’s on the up so may want to stick around for the ride. Possibly mid season loan might be where it’s at if game time is in short supply.

Quote ="karetaker"As it stands I’d fancy you have more chance of staying in SL than Castleford, they have done nothing since the last time we had licensing'" Unfair, Sir. Every year since they have issued indistinct mumblings of ground improvements without anything coming to fruition - not even seeded! The great, big fly in the ointment in the IMG grading proposals though is "Primacy of Tenure". When RU clubs started to go belly up, The Rugby Union dreamt up their own version of franchising proposals. One of them was "PoT". On research they found it to be in contravention of UK Competition Law. This game we play is only a northern isation in the eyes of the Establishment but, should a thus slighted club decide to pull in the legal blood-suckers, what a that would be for IMG. London do not have "PoT" - hence the mid-season wanderings. Leigh ditto. Do Wigan? If not, this criterion will quietly disappear. Here is some music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga1kMdJCc_Q

Quote ="karetaker"As it stands I’d fancy you have more chance of staying in SL than Castleford, they have done nothing since the last time we had licensing'" Unfair, Sir. Every year since they have issued indistinct mumblings of ground improvements without anything coming to fruition - not even seeded! The great, big fly in the ointment in the IMG grading proposals though is "Primacy of Tenure". When RU clubs started to go belly up, The Rugby Union dreamt up their own version of franchising proposals. One of them was "PoT". On research they found it to be in contravention of UK Competition Law. This game we play is only a northern isation in the eyes of the Establishment but, should a thus slighted club decide to pull in the legal blood-suckers, what a that would be for IMG. London do not have "PoT" - hence the mid-season wanderings. Leigh ditto. Do Wigan? If not, this criterion will quietly disappear. Here is some music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga1kMdJCc_Q

Hi all, Warrington fan here, just wanted to say welcome back to Super League. Always enjoyed London in the comp and looking forward to seeing you play. All the best for next year

Ethan locked in for next season, great stuff!

Pleased as he’s been very consistent.
I see Matthew Shaw pointing to Adebiyi coming back. No real surprise the write up of our match against Cougars was the tell. He’s popular and has done well for us but picked up a lot of injuries and will need to show he is SL standard.

https://londonbroncosrl.com/2023/10/27/adebiyi-is-back/ Sid’s return- Confirmed

https://londonbroncosrl.com/2023/10/27/adebiyi-is-back/ Sid’s return- Confirmed

If Sid can stay injury free, it will be good to see him back. But if he has signed a 2 year deal, is that full time, part time or 1 year full time & 1 year part time. The mind boggles.

You would assume anybody signing a full time deal for next season or longer would have some sort of clause in it about reverting to part-time in the event of demotion (are we calling it relegation still!?)

Or the club has an eye to carrying the hybrid full time/part time model further than just next season. Sure would be good if the club shed a bit of light on it.....

Good to see Sid back, a solid pick-up if he can stay injury free and proven at Championship level when/if we drop back down.

Slow on the recruitment and retention front currently, but a bit of insight from Mike here. Potentially nine heading out the door, but good to hear we are trying to keep the core together. https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/exclusiv ... son-84346/

Slow on the recruitment and retention front currently, but a bit of insight from Mike here. Potentially nine heading out the door, but good to hear we are trying to keep the core together. https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/exclusiv ... son-84346/

However, the core didn't look that good at the start of last season. It was only when we added some quality we started to improve.

Jared confirmed for next season. Really pleased to see him sticking around and seems to be held in really high regard by Mike and the other players.

Thought he played well above his weight at times this season which hopefully stands him for good stead in SL.

Great to see us retaining aggressively as per 2023 season. I do hope though that we get our recruitment strategy going pretty soon. Noticeable that the SL clubs have basically competed their recruitment whilst the Championship sides have begun to do the same- Eden to Fax, Walmsley to Trinity etc. Us - two guys in from now relegated Keighley. Both look decent additions certainly at Champ level, hopefully at SL but we’re looking light again for the start of the season. We tried bringing in quality late doors this season and it worked spectacularly but there are very few weak teams in SL and I suspect the same approach for 2024 may lead to a number of poor results early part of 2024 which may sap positivity and crowd growth.

We do seem to like 1 year contracts. While given our almost certain relegation next season, you can see why that might seem a good idea, it does make it hard to hold onto our youngsters should they show real promise.

Total RL are reckoning that Dean Whare is going to sign for us for 2024 - thought he'd joined one of the French League clubs? Or perhaps he's going to come back when the French season ends? https://www.totalrl.com/london-broncos- ... ue-season/

Total RL are reckoning that Dean Whare is going to sign for us for 2024 - thought he'd joined one of the French League clubs? Or perhaps he's going to come back when the French season ends? https://www.totalrl.com/london-broncos- ... ue-season/

Quote ="RfE"Total RL are reckoning that Dean Whare is going to sign for us for 2024 - thought he'd joined one of the French League clubs? Or perhaps he's going to come back when the French season ends? https://www.totalrl.com/london-broncos- ... ue-season/'" Hopefully the whole season. We will need our best players from day 1.

Quote ="RfE"Total RL are reckoning that Dean Whare is going to sign for us for 2024 - thought he'd joined one of the French League clubs? Or perhaps he's going to come back when the French season ends? https://www.totalrl.com/london-broncos- ... ue-season/'" Hopefully the whole season. We will need our best players from day 1.

A couple more retained. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/67343385

A couple more retained. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/67343385

Have to say I hope we don't waste the SKY cash on players given we know we are going down regardless
I'd much rather hear of the appointment of a strategic marketer with a 5 year plan on how to try and get us to 2,500 in the championship in 2025 and build from there at a rate of 20% a season getting us to 5,000 by no later than 2028. Realistically it will also take a new outside investor to maybe cover marquee player wages etc over the next 5 years.
Let's face it. With the clubs refusal to announce all figures for rh last few seasons, only Loubser knows how close we came to making ANY progress towards Hughes plucked from the sky figure of 5,000 by now.
As for the players we have retained/signed. Is there any danger of us getting a few if one or some or them catch they eye of SL clubs or will we just hand them over gratis as per the norm?

Eccles has said there will be turnover of about 8 or 9 players IIRC.

Parata, Butler and Norman are the three key outstanding retentions for me but no obvious players that we should let go. Looks like Whare is staying after all.
Depends on whether we have better lined up or they fancy something different. Definitely could do with strengthening our depth of wingers. Perhaps the young fella who hasn’t played since he was signed a couple of years ago might regrettably be let go - injuries I assume.