O'Callaghan is not up to Super League standard, and not up to Championship standard either. He is at about the level of University of Gloucester.

Howell would never get a contract in the NRL again.

Sarginson lacks the basic rugby instincts necessary to play centre.

Dixon cannot tackle anyone, but could be carried for his attacking skill if the rest of the backline was more capable in defence and could cover for him. But they are incapable of doing so.

Yet all Tony Rea can say is "we need more self-belief." He is a prisoner of his New Age "philosophy" and lacks the ability to recognise the reality of rugby league talent or lack thereof in certain players. Moreover, he cannot inspire the team at half time, as we have seen in every second half collapse.

David Hughes was involved in hiring Tony Rea as coach back in late 2000.

Ian Lenagan fired Tony Rea as coach in July 2006.

David Hughes rehired Tony Rea as coach in 2012.

As we have seen with the tenures of Rob Powelll and Gus Mackay, David Hughes is not quick to act in response to a person's poor job performance.

Therein lies one major problem for London Broncos.

Of course London Bronocos would not exist without the financial generosity of David Hughes. But that should not stop us from pointing out his failings as the leader of the club.

Yes since at the moment he is the person who ultimately has responsibility for hiring and paying for staff.

It's evident that he has made bad decisions in appointments, but without him we wouldn't have a club.

I blame gus for most things, but then again,it's not Gus's fault that he was appointed to a role he is patently not up to....that lies with the owner.

Most people agree that the London club is deserving of "assistance" from the RFL in regards to marketing and a weighted cap, but Mr Hughes has single handedly destroyed the club in his blind desire to play chicken with the RFL...it's almost like he wants us to have no fans so he can be seen to "get one over" on them...it's insanity in my opinion.

He is the reason we have a club and he is a saint....JUST NOT A VERY CLEVER ONE.

The simple fact is that if it wasn't for David Hughes we would have died when Virgin pulled out. Has he got everything right since then, clearly not. He has however all but single handedly funded superleague RL in London since Virgin tried to move us up north. Dan probably only had a pathway into pro RL thanks to David.

Having said all that I fully expect us to fold at the end of next season and David, whilst propping us up for years, hasn't always helped us by his 'I'll just pay the bill' approach, clearly fundamental weaknesses needed to be resolved instead.

Looks like I'll be watching Oxford every game in a couple of years. The money David has sunk in to junior development helped enable that. Some of his business decisions seem to have made it highly likely.

It's all DH's fault!

David Howell, that is.

Seem to remember that I was the first person on here to suggest that DH might be the problem some time back. Only wish that I could do a mea culpa and say that I was wrong, but unfortunately I can't

Seems to me that without DH we wouldn't have had a club but with DH we soon won't have a club.

There must be a problem with most owners of sports clubs, but without David Hughes there would be NO Super League Club in London! at present.

I don't think many coaches have come out and said "Our players just aren't good enough". Rea has to work with the players that he has been given. Right now, it's difficult to attract decent Aussies to the UK and northerners are wary about moving to Broncos. That means working with lads that probably should have spent a couple more years in age group rugby.

He could come out and say something like "as usual the boys played like a bunch of mugs", which I would really respect.

End of the day, dropping the ball from the kickoff (Howell), failing to find touch on a penalty (Witt), not passing except when it isn't on (Sarg) are not mistakes arising from lack of self-belief.

Edit: add "being the worst player in SL (JOC)" to that list

Yes, he could but he has to work with those players afterwards. I'm not sure I'd appreciate my boss talking about me like that in public, would you?

When he's paying the wages he's entitled to say what he likes.

Yes, but he was unlucky insofar as his successor then decided to get involved with Wigan and leave us high and dry. That did much to destabilise the club and leave us in the malaise we are now.

He still was responsible for appointing Gus and Powell, mind....

Yes but David Hughes is Not responsible for the players and what is happening currently on the pitch! that is the product that anyone has to sell.

At the end of last season it was right to bring Tony back for some stability, but I wonder if he no longer cuts it, why do we keep collapsing after ever half time interval?

Tony is pleading in one RL weekly today for three more years of the licence system or otherwise all the hard work with youth will be destroyed, as far as many in the North that will get the letter writers going.

The game needs not a magic weekend but a Miracle Weekend to give it profile, someone writes another letter asking the RFL to do something for London, why did Woods not send Dr K our way.

You look at all the new clubs in the South and some are doing really well in the League but they are attracting very little support and I bet they are working as hard as they can, but the Product of RL is not right! it is not sold right at a national level as it would attract major sponsors which it can't, clubs want relegation/promotion back but such as Featherstone are asking for players to take wage cuts so how will they survive if promoted?

Rugby League needs someone new and fresh to run the game, everyone expected Barwick to really push Nigel Wood but in the article in the London Evening Standard Barwick mentoned everything more including football rather than Rugby League!

Doesn't make it a good idea though.

Koukash has a long-held association with the north-west, hence buying Salford, a club in jeopardy. He has no connection to London.

London Broncos were relatively successful up until 2005 on the field of play, finishing sixth in Super League X and thus in a play-off spot and we finished above the likes of Wigan and Huddersfield whilst teams like Catalans and Hull KR were in lesser competitions.

At this point we were relatively successful, but after this the problems started and I believe they can be traced back to five separate events.

1) The decision to associate with Harlequins Rugby Union Club in a way which was promoted as a partnership but in reality was set up so that we were merely a tenant in similar colours, with the option for the Rugby Union club to buy. This non-committal approach meant that the Union club as the more senior partner with far greater resources could afford to sit back rather than having to invest in our success or failure. If we were owned, I would suggest that the likes of the 'Big Game' and other dual code games would have been inevitable. Nic Cartwright and David Hughes seem to be behind that commercial arrangement. We should have been bought, or played as our own entity.

2) It could also be pointed out that David Hughes and Lenagan did not find sufficient capital in terms of salary to build a strong enough team in 2006 and with a host of injuries still waited to commit further funds. This led to disgraceful home performances at the start of the 2006 season, which meant that it was five or six games before a home win, thus whittling away any semblance of Union support, especially with a non-committed Union owner. My view is that it was highly unlikely if not impossible to find dual supporters who watch both Union and League in the same weekend.

3) With players returning from injury, results had started to pick up, but the start of our decline on the field can be traced back directly to Lenagan's decision to remove Tony Rea and the decisions made around management recruitment and subsequently player recruitment. Lenagan would not have stood by and seen McDermott take the team from 7th to 9th to 9th again to 11th and then 13th, but David Hughes was prepared to let Mac take us down the table through five years of decline and which culminated in only 8 wins from the last 40 games without stepping in. Mac could pull off the odd unexpected big performance but never regularly beat the likes of Salford, Wakefield and Castleford and thus improve things, whilst the newly promoted clubs and Huddersfield began to strengthen beyond them and us.

4) The disgraceful decision to hire Powell was very strange given that we had an ageing squad playing badly and that needed a refresh. Why had Powell with no managerial experience, been appointed in the first place? By who? Who drew up his contract? I am guessing it is Paul Blanchard. But it was ridiculous. Powell was never going to be successful. And more importantly his recruitment decisions were shocking - he seemed to auto-renew anyone regardless of form and performances, sign players with long track records of injury. He should have been given the boot at the end of the first season, if not during the season - but he should never have got anywhere near the job in the first place.

5) The recruitment of a full suite of 'big names' from Australia and alleged spend of the full salary cap has yielded some pretty decent players but the salary cap has been badly mismanaged for year after year by Mac and Powell. There are some older Australians on huge salaries who are well past their best, a sprinkling of younger juniors not fit for purpose, plus guys with some ability but who struggle to play 1 game in 2 and only then a backbone. This is mainly down to Powell again but surely someone should have done their due diligence, be that Gus or David. It was common knowledge that some of the players signed had missed game after game for years.

You could also look at the RFL and their insipid efforts and the reclassification of us as a 'non development' area certainly hit us more than most.

But we will rise again.

Cheers
Rammo

The Good Doctor! companies are International, yes he is based in the North West but that should have been no problem, Salford is not really the most exciting venture, now Manchester Red Devils may be more down his path.

Salford were in or very near to collapse. We weren't.

This is exhausting.

I wish I shared your confidence.....once Mr Hughes leaves us we will be pretty much dead in the water as he represents about 40% of our total income. With 2,000 fans contributing maybe 650k a year and Sky money, I can't really see us as anything other than whipping boys and eventually a championship side.

If we were averaging 6,500 we'd have a chance.........but the refusal to engage in anything like a marketing campaign and contacting our neighbours has seen us lose fans. This is down to either Mr Hughes stance on assistance from the RFL and/or his appointments into key positions.

Once we go down, I really can't see us stepping back up for at least 15 years unless we find another benefactor.

2000 fans? Where does that number come from? Having been at every home game so far this season I would say 800 was a fairly optimistic number, whatever the club say.

For pities sake, yes PLUS this minor consideration LLLLLLLLLLLLWLLLLLLLLLLLLLWLLLLL

Do you get the picture?

Ah.....so there is actually a few hundred grand to spend on marketing, but Gus's is waiting for the team to start winning?

In previous posts I have listed the complete marketing activity since 2010.......I would say in my professional opinion that the total activity including cab doors, advert in the double header programme, generic adverts in the local free press (after we've announced we're leaving the locality) and the video being shown in walkabout pubs amounts to a poor effort regardless of the teams performance and has cost less then 20 grand.

In fact,I'd go so far as to say that including the wages of the 2 failed marketing managers, the press officer and all campaigns(sic) since 2006, the club have spent less than 300k.....I reckon Wigan would spend that in one ing year.


I have no doubt a winning team would help, but they aren't even trying and when they make any effort, they invariably it up.