Despite being 33 and I assume at the tail end of his career, he doesn't seem to have any first grade experience. Under-20s at St. George Illawarra Dragons then a bunch of teams playing in NSW level comps. Can't find info on where he has played in recent years.

Think it's fair to say he doesn't have any Buzz. Clearly not one for the future but hope he can bring something to the party. Bit of a worry that we have signed 2, 30 somethings with little or no quality experience from Aussie.

I think the key here is experience. I don’t know him from a hole in the wall but Smithers hits the nail on the head when he identifies the need for a player in this position. Horseman and Leyland, the latter more so because of the lengthy injuries the former has suffered, have come on but I’ve come away with the impression the club thought they were world beaters and we could build our squad around them. I don’t see that YET but the may well get there. That in my view was one of the reasons we were undercooked and underwhelming at the start of last season. In terms of age I think that plays into our hands as basically RL players don’t hang around for long so as long as they have it this season it’s fine. Him being fit and settling quickly into the side is key. This feels a step up to me from trawling around for someone to fill this crucial position for 2 weeks. So basically we’ll done to the board. Now the question of why guys from Australia are willing to decamp to London for a year to take on the opportunities of one of the top 10 cities in the world but seemingly not guys from Batley is a more vexing one. Having said that our recruitment from the North turned out badly last season, Foster saw out his contract but he didn’t hang around either, so you can’t blame them too much.

Wiki says he is 6' 1"" & 15st. Not the smallest half back we've ever had. Probably not going to nip through a small gap but if he retains some of his Fijian heritage, he will certainly be big enough to run over the opposition.

https://twitter.com/bbcsport/status/1586393546348789761 Looks to have a bit of flair

https://twitter.com/bbcsport/status/1586393546348789761 Looks to have a bit of flair

"Bula" big man. Welcome to SW London. Rug up warm bro, you're in for a cold awakening in Feb/March....

Doesn't look 6' 1" in that clip.

Love Rugby League seem to be going through the Championship every day/couple of days with a How X are shaping up for 2023. They’re going to have fun with our one- bit on the shortish side - same as last year. Hmm Is that the sound of Broncos recruitment machinery spluttering into life. May have been my imagination.

Cake said we had offers out on 5 players at WC. Anyone expecting more than this one to come through ?

Looking a bit grim isn’t it. Every day passes there is news of a cook island players or whatever coming to a championship side and it’s announced and they are off to Bradford or some such. Even people from the Cook Islands have heard how much pints cost in London. Wait until they hear what the average rent is.

Black Friday announcements anyone?
Anyway. If you CURRENTLY visit [urlhttp://www.Londonbroncosrl.com[/url and click the NEXT MATCH headline this is where you end up.... [urlhttp://backthebroncos.com/latest-news/[/url

Not sure, but that looks like Thai script?

Not sure how much money is changing hands in terms of the "PARTNERSHIP" with Key and Sparrow, but whatver it is, WE ARE NOT GETTING ENOUGH!

Yeah, it's Thai.

Yeah, a Wordpress site. Keep it patched or get hacked immediately..

Being charitable... Did we use and link out to the backthebroncos.com domain ever? And did K&E wrongly think that using javascript on a container was a good idea for a link? And then forget where that link was pointing? And some nefarious other subsequently bought that domain?

This seems very, very unlikely.

More likely, hacked.

For any nerds (or Key and Eagle) reading this, take a look at the source code:
[code<script type="text/javascript">
var et_link_options_data = [{"class":"et_pb_section_1","url":"http:\/\/backthebroncos.com\/latest-news\/","target":"_self"},{"class":"et_pb_section_3","url":"http:\/\/backthebroncos.com\/latest-news\/","target":"_self"},{"class":"et_pb_section_5","url":"http:\/\/backthebroncos.com\/latest-news\/","target":"_self"},{"class":"et_pb_section_7","url":"","target":"_blank"},{"class":"et_pb_section_9","url":"http:\/\/backthebroncos.com\/our-sponsors-2\/","target":"_self"}];
</script>
[/code

Anyone wants an explanation of what that garbage means, PM me: I don't want to bore people here (any more than usual).

You are never boring Benny!!

Even if you explained it in words of one syllable, I'm sure I'd still not understand. LoL

Told the club about this redirect (and what I'd do about it) via their "Contact Us" form on the website (I'm hoping that form hasn't been hacked too).

Let's see what happens!

My girlfriend would disagree!

Australian from Italian squad announced with NSW Cup experience. I think I see the pattern here. Expect more of the same no doubt to be announced shortly from the Lebanon, Greek and Cook Islands squads. In all seriousness this tactic could work. We needed a bit of experience and our additions this off season have given us that. Clearly we have drawn a line under signing from other Championship and SL clubs.

My forlorn hope is that one of these under-the-radar signings will be the new Mark Riley.

Maybe your girlfriend's right, you posted this dream before.


But, yes if only as he'd be several cuts above the Fijian. We must both dream on.

Mark Riley was better than Nathan Cleary, Andrew Johns and Allan Langer combined.

Ok, objectively, to an impartial observer, maybe he wasn't. But I'm neither objective or impartial

One of the great joys of the Roy & Barbara Close days was you never knew who would turn up from down under who nobody had heard of & be very good. Peter White springs to mind as one such player.

But where are today's Londoners like Martin Herdman, Steve Guyett or Colin Fenn?

Just thought, getting back to Mark Riley, we could field a team entirely of scrum halves we've had so many over the years. That's your mission Benny should you wish to accept it, 13 scrum halves starting with:
1. Reg Bowden

I've still not seen any announcements on Cake's two promised assistants.

I know this is the off season, but I think this may well have drifted off-topic.

Still, challenge accepted. And probably failed.

2. Dennis Moran
3. Jarrod Sammut
4. Glen Air
5. Shaun Edwards
6. Josh White
7. Jamie Soward
8. Danny Orr
9. Leo Dynevor
10. Luke Gale
11. Craig Gower
12. Kevin Langer
13. William Barthau

And no mention of Riley. Because he was too good to be contained by any list.

That list does unfortunately show when I started following the club and that, as an old man, I think everything was better in the past. It also reflects when I started getting confused about who was playing scrum-half and who was playing stand-off (and sometimes hooker). I've probably got a few wrong here.

I tried to explain rugby league positions and what each position did to someone I dragged along to a game a few years' ago. Who fed the scrum for us throughout that game? Kieran Dixon. Not the scrum-half like I'd suggested.

I doubt we'll see the likes of some of these players again. Unless someone else takes over the club.

Agreed, once the rules changed & scrums nolonger pushed you could probably swap hooker, lock, SH & SO without problems. Any list will always be limited by who you have seen so newbies will not have a large pool of talent or any talent to chose from. For what it's worth in no particular order, my list:
Reg Bowden
John Dalgreen
Ray Ovens (taken from us far too young sadly)
Johnny Plath
Mark Riley
Josh White
Shaun Edwards
Denis Moran
Mark McLindon
Danny Orr
Craig Gower
Jamie Soward
Jarrod Sammut

Bench:
Like Gale
Dave Cruickshank
Mike Davis
Tulson Tollett

Not sure many teams have had that array of talent, shame most didn't stay very long.

Lordy Lordy how could I have forgotten Tommy Leuluai from that little list.

Glen Air, Luke Dorn, Karle Hammond, Scott Hill