Probably the worst London performance I have seen last night. Hughes is responsible because it was surely he who decided that we would field a L1 side this season. It is time for the invisible man to explain himself.

I am wondering if more gets spent on the stadium security than on the team ?

The invisible man was at the dewsbury game, believe he is out the country most of time at the moment, as I understand it, had we lost that one, the coach was gone. Not sure what expectations from last night were, so would not be shocked if Germain stays put a while.
Reckon as long as we can beat dewsbury home and away Workington home and away and get one other win to stay up thats probably all that was expected by him for this season

I can’t really judge the performance but was more entertained (in the loosest sense of the word) last night than when we played Widnes in the season opener in front of a big crowd and basically holed the season under the waterline within 15 minutes. As for the Haven game: that was just sxxt.
I totally agree that with a gap of 6 + weeks where only a few hardy souls will see Broncos play, now is the time for the decision makers to give us their state of play address and tell us what they think is happening. They will no doubt want to talk about crowd levels and corporate that will be up on last year ( I suspect we are back to pre COVID levels@1000) but of course the off set in ground rent etc will almost certainly mean are net profits are down. There seems little merchandise on sale, the lottery seems to be down to the last few, the squad builder is silent, no programmes and the raffle tickets are advertised in such a half arsxx way I bet sales are not what they could be. Then there is player sponsorship- is that up. I don’t think so. Yes it will be interesting to hear what plans they have.

I think you may be right NB. The problem is can we really be expected to buy in to this level of squad/performance long term? Scrapping around the bottom of the league in the best stadium in the league, albeit 3/4 closed. I wonder if they have a plan of improvement or is it simply they hope Leyland and Horsmann will reach their potential sooner or later and then we’ll be alright. I have a nasty feeling I can guess what it is.

That makes sense, I can't believe he would spend so little on a team he felt obliged to watch.

If Hughes's expectations are that it is ok to be drubbed at home by Newcastle then he should have more respect for the club's fans.

This was my first trip to Wimbledon since I wouldn't attend while blocked by the club on Twitter. So in fact, there may have been worst performances this season but not that I have seen.

The 900+ crowd was more than I expected and the atmosphere was OK. However, there is no Broncos presence at all the stadium. As a minimum, they should focus some activities (like raffle tickets sales, team sheets) in the area near the turnstiles. Also have Buck and Dusty and a few of the incredible volume of security acting as 'gamesmakers' in Broncos gear to welcome people (newcomers expecially) and tell them where things are. It is pointless playing in what is a good facility without putting some effort into making it more of an experience. Despite all that, we won't grow crowds with a team.

Hughes target was 5,000 in 3 years. Ain't going to happen without big changes both on and off the field.

You ain’t wrong.
It seems to me that realistic but challenging 3 year targets would have been average of 2000 for Championship and 3000for Super League (bit of black humour there). Those might well be doable with an inventive marketing push and infrastructure in place i.e staff. The former is easier said than done but the latter is a must. If you ain’t got it don’t make up figures. As the club knew there was no infrastructure in place at all it was foolish and disingenuous to offer the figure . It’s fairytale stuff designed to make them and possibly the wider RL world feel good but it won’t be deliverable. Even on my figures, or indeed theirs, a majority of PL would still be unused. It gives every indication, in the absence of detail, of being a back of a fag packet estimate.
If we drop into L1 (and continue) what then? Crowds would drop obviously and STs would take a hit bearing in mind all the discounting but the away fan bounce hasn’t really happened anyway and 50 people taking up free tickets is really the same as 200 taking them up this year in respect of the bottom line. I’d expect maybe 500 paying spectators and another 50 free as an average. Not really much different from where we are now. But our chance to make a good impression in a new area would be gone and very difficult to see how to turn it around. Possibly a real charge at L1 title?

I suppose it is fortunate that we have no home games until July.
I may have regained some enthusiasm by then.

The 5,000 target in itself was not the problem and was needed to justify the move and more generally to become more sustainable.It would also be viable if we were to get back to the competitive SL level we were at before Hughes took sole charge.

The issue is the way the club have set out achieving the target. Recruiting our worst ever squad was incompatable with hitting any improvement target never mind this one.

That coupled with a lack lustre effort to attract people to games and offer a match day experience tells you that we have management that is both incompetent and hypocritical.

We could be the side with the highest points total relegated (super league 2019) and the lowest survival points (2022 Championship). If we just beat Dewsbury and Town twice, we could end up staying up with as little as 9 points.

Although I expect Dewsbury to win a couple more games, so I don't think 9 points will be enough, 13 should be however

940 and a full gold lounge will keep Loubser employed, but how mustard stays in a job is a mystery.
Newcastle are bang average.....to lose wasn't unexpected but a home hammering is unacceptable.
As for Hughes being "out if the country"....he has a responsibility to the fans whether he likes it or not and should "man up" and tell the London Broncos faithful what his plans are going forward......I can still see some shenanigans afoot in terms of the IMG deal.....they will most assuredly see a huge benefit to a London presence in monatising RL so maybe that's why we seem content to tread water.......but it's a cruel thing to do to regular fans

My suspicion all along was that the move to PL was to get a London team into the 20 team structure. Maybe someone has had a word somewhere?

You may well be right Hockney but it’s a shame that person didn’t make it clear that being one of the 20 best clubs was the best way to make the cut. We really are a shower at the moment and if Skolars were better they could steal a slot at the big table ahead of us although as we have basically hoovered up their 1st team squad in a way they have.

I can only think that that is the reason we are being served up this drivel on the pitch.

Looking at this from a commercial sense, if your a London Broncos accountant masquerading as a CEO, if you have been told you will be certain of being in the 2x10 structure if you move to PL, regardless of squad and League status, why would you tell the fans that you would be playing a shell team for the next 2 years as we are assured of being in the 2x10. If you did the most fans would say ok, we will be back in 2024, we will spend our money on other activities, and you end up with gates of 200 hard core who don't mind losing by 60+ each week.

They must have known they would lose fans with the joke squad this year, but at least they would have the Season Ticket revenue for 2022 in the bag.

After all I think they abandonded their existing fans, and hoped to replace them with Dons fans, plus new locals. But thats not going to work with a shell squad

It seems entirely possible the club thought along these lines but for every £ they are saving on players they are spending on facilities we don't currently need. The smarter accountant might have found a way to secure PL but not move until we actually needed to. The reality of the situation is that we won't make progress towards Hughes 5,000 target with this squad. He isn't even turning up himself. If the club has sacrificed this season it is a very cynical move and those locals who have showed up will have had a pretty bad first impression. I can't think it is helping retain long term fans either. Hughes even seems to be screwing over Skolars as well.

I feel sorry for Skolars. They seem to be going nowhere now. It strikes me two semi pro RL teams in London is one too many. If an investor came in at Skolars and maybe played at, say, Orient they might find their way into a 20 team structure rather than Broncos. But that's a lot of "if, buts and maybes".

They announced 940 at the game like it was something to be proud of?
Don't get me wrong....regardless of the freebies etc, that's a decent number for a Friday night game, but look at the effort and results of other clubs to attract crowds on Mondays when the TV cameras are there and you'll see how far we have to go
As we have no figures to deal with (I've asked) for Bradford or Dewsbury, we can't work out an average attendance after 6 home games, but if we accept that dewsbury was sub 600 as many have said, it's fair to say we are heading for an average for the season of fewer than 1,000.....20% into Hughes back.of a beer-mat target.
I'm not sure if my assumption that we've moved because we are a shoo in for SLII is correct,, but even if we are, we will need to show we can attract crowds for the new decision makers at IMG to give us a chance.
As for Hughes himself. If IMG are of the opinion that the sport needs a capital team, they my find it easier to create one from scratch than deal.withna man who has a track record if failed business marriages. He obviously doesn't play well with others and likes to be told what he wants to hear.
Chisholm was the missing piece of the on field puzzle, but rather than rent him a family home for 6 months and double his wages before letting him to to Keighley (who don't need him) we assumed we'd kick on from our win without him....we were wrong and that hammering at home to Newcastle was a disgrace.

I really do not know why having made the decision to go part time, the club did not do as Fulham did and base the team in the North.
They could have attracted a much better standard of player and coach. Players could have remained living in their homes with their families.
I am sure it would have worked.

This exactly, if I was IMG, I would be wanting him out.

It's decent [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0dJRCl7Kqsinterview[/url and a lot more revealing than the barely audible clip the club put out. Highlights where the source of our problems are.

Highlights where SOME of our problems are Buzza. If it highlighted them all we’d be here all day!