The potential in London : Mon Apr 21, 2014 5:23 pm  

We can all agree that London are not very good at the moment. But consider, they do bring out somr pretty good players. Even in the current team, Keiran Dixon has 38 tries from 51 SL appearances. Mason Caton-Brown has 11 tries in 13 appearances, and Mike McMeeken looks like a potentially top player.. Plus Clubb, Sarginson, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Caro & Channing at other SL clubs - all from the South of England.

It may be that Broncos are not capable of sustaining themselves as a SL outfit. But the rest of the competition needs to work with them after they go down, and with Skolars, to help grow the game in the south and mine the seam of talent that is clearly there.

Re: The potential in London : Mon Apr 21, 2014 5:28 pm  

Great, another thread about London for Capdouze to piggy back on to.

Re: The potential in London : Mon Apr 21, 2014 5:40 pm  

At this point it's just embarrassing to have them in the competition. If they go down to the Championship hopefully they'll hit a level and build from there - winning in the Championship is better for crowds than getting absolutely steamrolled every game in SL.

Re: The potential in London : Mon Apr 21, 2014 6:06 pm  

BD wrote:

At this point it's just embarrassing to have them in the competition. If they go down to the Championship hopefully they'll hit a level and build from there - winning in the Championship is better for crowds than getting absolutely steamrolled every game in SL.

The crowds make no difference because all the gate receipts go to Barnet FC regardless of attendance. When London are relegated the club should just disappear, the few hundred remaining fans can go and watch Skolars or something. It's a shame that players from the South won't have a clear pathway to SL, hopefully Northern clubs stop being so insular and cast the net further to keep the talent coming through.

[Jimmythecuckoo]

Re: The potential in London : Mon Apr 21, 2014 6:23 pm  

I enjoyed it there Thursday night and not just because we won.

The facility is close to three motorways at the tip of the capital. It has good parking and public transport links.

I understand the issues of ownership and how little of the revenue goes to Broncos, but if they can show initiative and innovation off the park I would start to fear them.

If they could get another 500 fans with the passion of the ones they have now it would snowball.

Re: The potential in London : Mon Apr 21, 2014 6:44 pm  

Would any of those players have made the breakthrough without London in the top flight?
Despite the potential of the players and the as yet untapped player pool, the potential of London as a club remains undeveloped. There is great potential for a properly run Rugby League Club, but the Broncos have mismanaged themselves and eroded their own fanbase. They can regroup but not under the current ownership.
The new location is good for Rugby and if new owners are foumd then a lot of fans could well return even if the club are operating at a lower level and a lot of new fans could well find a well run and well marketed team with potential an attractive proposition to watch and support.
Barnet may be getting all the gate receipts now, but that situation could well be renegotiated under a different regime.
It could be argued RL needs London more than London needs RL but that is not my argument.

Re: The potential in London : Mon Apr 21, 2014 7:17 pm  

Worlds Apart wrote:

We can all agree that London are not very good at the moment. But consider, they do bring out somr pretty good players. Even in the current team, Keiran Dixon has 38 tries from 51 SL appearances. Mason Caton-Brown has 11 tries in 13 appearances, and Mike McMeeken looks like a potentially top player.. Plus Clubb, Sarginson, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Caro & Channing at other SL clubs - all from the South of England.

It may be that Broncos are not capable of sustaining themselves as a SL outfit. But the rest of the competition needs to work with them after they go down, and with Skolars, to help grow the game in the south and mine the seam of talent that is clearly there.

There are two issues here; Rugby League in London, and London Broncos. People really need to stop confusing the two.

London and the SE has a lot of talent that the game would be insane not to nurture. It doesn't have to be a badly managed London Broncos club that does this - there are 13 other Super League clubs that are capable of finding talent in an area that is (for most) less than 2 hours away by train.

Re: The potential in London : Mon Apr 21, 2014 7:31 pm  

eastman wrote:

Would any of those players have made the breakthrough without London in the top flight?
Despite the potential of the players and the as yet untapped player pool, the potential of London as a club remains undeveloped. There is great potential for a properly run Rugby League Club, but the Broncos have mismanaged themselves and eroded their own fanbase. They can regroup but not under the current ownership.
The new location is good for Rugby and if new owners are foumd then a lot of fans could well return even if the club are operating at a lower level and a lot of new fans could well find a well run and well marketed team with potential an attractive proposition to watch and support.
Barnet may be getting all the gate receipts now, but that situation could well be renegotiated under a different regime.
It could be argued RL needs London more than London needs RL but that is not my argument.

London Broncos are dead. They have been for years, pretty much since they became Harlequins RL and lost any sort of identity. If there are people who want to resurrect the club then they would honestly be better off starting again from scratch in Championship 1 than continuing to flog this dead horse (pun not intended). There is massive potential in London and the embarrassing mismanagement and abject failure of this pathetic club is not a reflection of that.

Re: The potential in London : Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:11 pm  

Jimmythecuckoo wrote:

I enjoyed it there Thursday night and not just because we won.

The facility is close to three motorways at the tip of the capital. It has good parking and public transport links.

I understand the issues of ownership and how little of the revenue goes to Broncos, but if they can show initiative and innovation off the park I would start to fear them.

If they could get another 500 fans with the passion of the ones they have now it would snowball.

It's a cracking venue and one with so much potential from a London RL perspective. In the corner of my eye in the pub earlier sky were showing highlights of some game there, they had less of a crowd than that which the Broncos have been getting, or so it seemed.

Re: The potential in London : Tue Apr 22, 2014 9:35 am  

What's needed is a professionally run Rugby League Academy, maybe by the RFL, which spearheads / acts as a focus for all the primary, youth and junior work that is ongoing.