He certainly is the back end of a Pantomime horse.

This ship has sailed.
The behaviour of the club to its supporters over the last few years, has lost them a lot of good will to the people they need to keep the club alive.
People will not volunteer with current mgmt in place, not going to happen.

I actually think the Broncos brand is so tarnished they actually need to reform under a different name, there is just no good will left.

The volunteer thing is an all to accurate reflection of how Monkey has misread the whole Broncos thing. He established the BOSG on the back of the super keenest supporters wanting to be part of this new initiative. He then selected who he perceived to be the most committed of the lot to run the show, putting the onus on them to find the volunteers to fill in the roles. Maybe it was more manageable at Trailfinders and they have been found out at Plough Lane, as most of the guys - and I apologise if I have got this completely wrong - are then for a beer and a catch up rather worrying about the strategic stuff and ensuring these roles are filled if Monkey's assertions are correct. So now Monkey has been left with a significant part of his selling point for Plough Lane and going part time undermined as he hasnt got the volunteers to ensure the match experience (off field) is excellent and the match day logistics well supported.

Nothing wrong with the name/ brand.
Only the current owner/ management.

Says it all when the club no longer has any members of the thriving volunteer movement left or even a single SAG committee member attending games, shame the last two were told by Monkey they were not welcome at games, The reason they were banned was because when they tried to give constructive aid to the monkey they were told they dont know what they are talking about and were not welcome

Let me get this straight.....the LBSA sponsor the academy but some of them were told they are banned from games for disagreeing with a staff member who has set up a rival fan group who sponsor nothing other than his ego?
Does David Hughes even understand what's going on at the club?

I could help out........but I have zero interest in anything the club does or says tbh. I have the occasional nose on here (I'm banned by the club on SM) so why in gods green earth would I do anything for them??

Let's be honest, it's disgusting the situation the club is in. Part time club, full time shambles

You would have thought that forming an official supporters group would have been run past David Hughes.
Simply, he alienated many fans by allowing it. So David, you reap what you sow.

The original Broncos Official Supporter's Group was chosen on a vote basis, from the first 50 members to sign up, and the voters were from the supporters and no one else.

It was really orientated to try and help fill an activity gap, with supportive activities, perhaps on a match day, to try to help the club.

The club had found prior to that, that it was difficult to get much of a level of co-operation and support.

I'll give my views on the BOSG.

I personally felt that Brian and his Wife made an ideal Chairman and Secretary; they were retired and had previously fulfilled the roles at London Broncos. I wasn't sure they were well known enough at the club. Thus I was supportive of Andy being a co-Chairman as he had stated he would also be retiring from working life and thus be available and I felt that he and Lesley would be a friendly male and female face on a matchday.

The other members of the Group I saw more as offering a specific skill or experience; for instance someone with a financial background could be a treasurer or someone who had fund raising experience could raise funds.

For things to work the Group needed the Chairman, co-Chairman and Secretary to be working regularly in their own time and for the Club to provide a trusted leadership figure with ongoing direction and openness with a deep commitment to the role, and someone who could hear criticism and want to respond to it and better the club.

Within the first few weeks, it turned out that the Chairman and Secretary were not seen as being compatible with the club representatives; the co-Chairman did not retire from working life and committee members would simply drop out. Other people would chime in and claim to have a skill but not move things forward in any way, only to disappear, without even any reasoning, yet feel free to criticise despite their proven negligence and indolence.

There were also people within the group who did have a skill but it could realistically be best placed or only done a matchday.

It was difficult, and I felt by this time last year that the Group could likely only move forward properly if either the BOSG set out a list of issues, or the club set out an overall strategy, and that there was a commitment to move forward on at least one of the two.

If neither happened, then it would be a talking shop only and might even be seen as making the club worse.

It didn't happen; my paper was simply disregarded after point one and a fallacious view given on it being wrong. It was not wrong. The data fully supported my argument and nothing other than an opinion was given.

As time passed, the club began to be seen as somewhere you couldn't discuss things; more about banning and blocking than discussing and the disconnect between club representatives and the supporter base grew, and paranoia grew.

I personally tried to hold the club to account, although not being the lead on things. I put a series of forthright opinions to the club around a suite of different topics as diverse as the AFC Wimbledon move, club lottery, fan engagement, pricing and even a proposal for a different club representative to interact with the BOSG. But as time passed it was clear that no such strategy would ever be shared with the BOSG and that there was little interest in going beyond lip service.

I think over the last 18 months events have not helped, that is for sure, but I hold the senior leadership team at the Broncos to account for their responses.

I do not think the club's media manager should have been furloughed and I do not think he should have been made redundant and I do not think there was anyone capable of replacing him at the club, on even a temporary basis.

I do not think tickets should have been sold at far higher prices for a move that was never going to take place that season and in my opinion the price has doubled for half the quality. I think the price was too low, but you cannot take away everything of value and double the price.

I do not think the existing players, including the club trained players, needed to wait almost the entire season to be told the club was going part time a week or two before the end of the season. This no doubt caused alienation and player departures, well beyond what I think the club had expected.

I think the club could have retained the majority of Walters, Hindmarsh, Sam Davis, Jones, Meadows, Boafo, Hodson and Ogden without the club doing things this way and I also feel that the likes of Fozard, Aston and Sammut were all retainable as I cannot believe anyone has broken the bank to get them.

Anyone who understands the costs of London understands that you would not get players to move to London on little money, unless they were either lower level, locally based or somehow managed to find a high paid job.

I do not think the club trained players still at the club are standouts; this includes the halfbacks who did not set-up tries for excellent players like Hankinson and Miski and are unlikely to do so for lesser players.

I do not think Leyland, Horsman, Blakemore and Oakley would be first team regulars even in the top half of the third division.

The likes of Latu, Macani, Palumbo, the Greenhalgh brothers, Dalton Grant, Thomas, Tuliatu, Coates and Ramsey were unlikely to all be of a Championship standard.

I do not see how Coleman could have been appointed in the first place. He had a win streak at London Skolars in 2017 when the weaker southern based teams were all in the league. 2018 was poor. 2019, he had another win streak, which ended in May 2019. After that he won one game over a year later against Coventry in May 2020. Apart from that Coleman has beaten only West Wales.

Broncos haven't won under him, a streak that is 6 losses, and 8 losses as a club. How could anyone rate him as the best available option, surely he cannot be seen as a better option than Tsang, Mbu, Ward or even Powell who were all locally based.
It just doesn't make sense. It is a very hard sell.

Regarding "help" there seems to be an army of people in orange Jackets with no specific skill, paid to be about on a matchday, when there is zero chance of crowd trouble, who could be allocated to specific roles after 3pm.

Also I do not see why the club cannot get the non-selected players to fulfill the matchday roles; I would not for instance expect Wellington Albert to dress up as Dusty, but I cannot see why the non-selected players can't do the administrative roles like manning the ticket office.

I think as things stand the way forward for the club is to declare an amnesty for the dozens or hundreds of blocked supporters and to bring in a friendly face to try to win back them. The club needs that person to be focused upon the customer experience.

I would be comfortable about supporting the club, even on a matchday, if the wrong people go and the right people are in place.

I suspect that there are others like me.

I pray the club can start to do things right again.

^^^^^^what he said^^^^^^^

Thanks Mark. It was very interesting to hear a little bit more about what has been going on behind the scenes. Many of us, whilst appreciating many of the challenges, have been baffled by much of the decision making and the lack of joined up thinking. I

I've not. Ever since Gus told Petra she was surplus to requirements at QuinsRL.......there is no excuse. If an apology is coming it needs to come from Hughes. He has done this, although I genuinely believe he has little idea if what goes on at the club other than "rugby" and "his money gets spent".....HIS APPOINTMENTS are his responsibility.

Yep, Hughes has to take the blame. He has slowly but surely screwed the club up.

Thing is, everyone else can see the problems (and have for a long time) but those at the club that matter, cannot.

I also would happily come back, even help out if the club showed they are interested in building bridges and moving in the right direction, but let's be honest, we all know that will not happen.

The club could do itself a huge favour, but they are either too clueless or too stubborn

And once crowds will fall below 1K average, then who will get the blame for the move failing, the few remaining fans not the idiots who gutted the squad, while forcing a pointless move, while increasing prices by such a jump.

Its just a question of which game it will be when DH finally realises that the move has not worked, and then his reaction will depend on if we still have a club.

Also looks likely that Wimbledon might also get relegated this year, they lost again today. Sorry about this @smithers

More chance they want the club to stay (need the money)??

Mark, I wasn't a member of LBSA - I joined the day BOSG was announced having previously refused to do so as I thought it should have been London RL based, not Broncos based. I struggle to see how BOSG offered a way forward. Please can you let me know why we are in disagreement here? After 20 plus years as a season ticket holder I haven't been a game since BoSG launched. That's partially due to Covid, to family ill health and me being ill but I hope to return soon. What am I missing?

its more on if DH will continue to pay the rent if London end up looking like in League 1.

I would say that if London lose to Dewsbury and go potentially 0-10, I would expect some reaction from Hughes. Although I'm not sure exactly what it would be

Tbh, I cant see anything over than the club going to the wall.

What do we have?? Part time squad, part time coach, no staff. Simple things like programmes/decent merchandise gone. Theres nothing. Just put it out of its misery

Things must be desperate if Rammo has come on here to offer his views, as he is perceived as being Monkeys insider and cohort from the support base!

Tiger Carroll used to don the Buck costume back in the day. Often with hilarious consequences.

1. Saturday Night, 7 days after York and the Bradford banner on the club site is still wrong



2. I have been banging my marketing drum for nearly 2 decades on here, but here is a genuine Facebook picture Memory that popped up for me today from years ago.....Mackay was announced as leaving in March 2014 at the time, having take the club from 2011 and Harlequins RL with 3,200 average gates in SL to the brink of relegation with 1,200 fans.

Note.....[iHE WALKED.[/i Hughes doesn't [uever[/u admit mistakes. It is Hughes who needs to apologise and ask all the alienated and banned fans to return.

Farnborough Town FC reputedly used to use dropped contacted players as the mascot. Probably not ideal tbh but hey hi.

Well said Rammo.
I know the former media manager well and he did not want to leave the club. He was told that the new commercial manager could do the media during the pandemic which is why he was furloughed.
He was then told he could look after the “data” the club held and wasn’t needed to do media anymore as the aforementioned commercial manager had it covered as there wasn’t anything to tell fans.
Redundancy was offered when he said no to that as he wanted to look after the media and the messaging to the fans.
He would have stayed as he loved the job and the club.