There's no doubt it's expensive, I seem to recall the club saying north of a million per annum. However, quite how the club think they can build a team good enough to get a fair dump of IMG performance points on the next couple of cycles without decent academy products breaking through is beyond me.

I'll reserve judgement until the club speak, surely they must talk to fans about this, but I'm currently struggling to see any logic beyond a short run saving that will probably seriously weaken the club in the long run.

This is a massive decision and can't possibly be rationalised on the basis that no grading points are awarded for running an academy. It's too fundamental for that.

The club has often spoken about the importance of its investment in the academy and on the move to Cherry Red Hughes said:

[iOnce again we have promoted a handful of players from our Academy and this pathway has to be preserved for the long term future of Professional Rugby League in London.[/i

When last promoted to Super League, Hughes did a series of interviews patting himself on the back and [url=https://www.totalrl.com/london-junior-development-massively-underestimated-says-chairman-david-hughes/touting the academy[/url as massively underestimated by the rest of the game and asserting that youth would be a core component of the club’s long-term plans in the south.

The squad make up under Eccles is indeed based on home grown players (and returnees) with a sprinkling of talent from elsewhere. How can that continue without an academy ? It is very difficult to see where the club is going with this.

It's been obvious for a long time that Hughes has no sense but maybe he now has no money either.

I have been saying it for years - the junior game in London and South is on its uppers, as to be fair is the comunity game in general.

Back in the day, when there were development officers in play around the region, there were great numbers of juniors and clubs and they fed into a well organised Broncos pathway. I am sure a lot of today's Open age former academy players were introduced to the game in this era. RFL stopped the funding for DO. The problem was the DO officers were coaches rather than DEVELOPMENT officers and once they went the void wasnt filled. Player numbers dropped year on year, Broncos did nothing to assist, but the myth that Broncos had a magnificent academy was perpetuated. The slide was marked pre covid, but covid hit the junior game for six. Fewer teams, fewer players, fewer volunteers, less full 13 a side games, less referees; the objective to just get by. Broncos sit in on the end of season Origin games (not neccessarily the best players in the region) rather than go to 'scout' and hope they can get enough players to play academy. The surest sign that things are faultering is the number of players now at St Marys Uni in the Academy. Always a good barometer, last year 4 including Bill Leyland, this year one and I think he is a fringe.

This has been coming for some time I am sad to say.

There's no doubt the junior game is in decline down south. This has impacted the Academy. Recent results speak volumes. I'm hoping the club reveal a plan to use the cash saved to re-invigorate junior RL and then reboot the Academy. That would make sense.

If it's a simple cash save, as I fear, I can't see this as anything other than disastrous for southern RL.

https://www.totalrl.com/newly-promoted- ... rogrammes/ Its official. As the article says nearly 100 youngsters with no pathway to the first team. Words fail me.

https://www.totalrl.com/newly-promoted- ... rogrammes/ Its official. As the article says nearly 100 youngsters with no pathway to the first team. Words fail me.

It's behind a paywall, did the club give any explanation for it ?

Hmm. Not good news as pre- season starts. Our squad generally relies to a significant degree of players we have developed. However in last 3 years how many have broken through? Basically only the Leyland brothers. SL is hardly the place for completely untested academy graduates, nor was bottom of the Championship. We have no Loan arrangements with lower tier teams, Skolars have gone. We have to pay for additional training facilities. We get spanked most times we play the occasional academy fixture and IMG allocate no points for all this good work. Difficult to see how any players we develop could reach correct standard and yet our squad is built on academy players who are in the mid 20s - Davis, Bienek, Walker, Meadows, Boafo, Lovell, Williams, etc etc.
Bit of a s**t show really.

In short, no.

What a mess

https://londonbroncosrl.com/2023/11/15/ ... structure/ From the club - they're calling it a 'restructure' Whatever they call it it still seems wrong - although possibly not quite the total collapse of the set up as first feared?

https://londonbroncosrl.com/2023/11/15/ ... structure/ From the club - they're calling it a 'restructure' Whatever they call it it still seems wrong - although possibly not quite the total collapse of the set up as first feared?

Proof of the pudding is on the eating. If the club are seriously revamping the system then I wish them well. It's clear there are currently issues and they are likely to worsen as junior playing numbers decline, Skolars can't blood players etc. There may be value in revisiting the set up. Hopefully it's not just words to cover up an awful decision.