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.

Agree 100%

"With the new IMG grading criteria, clubs are not directly rewarded for running an ‘Elite Academy’, so we will
focus on other areas to improve the club with the long term aim of becoming ‘Category A’."

So there we go as I alluded to. I'm sure it's not the only reason (or necessarily even the major reason) but illustrates what I'm suspecting that clubs will be driven towards meeting IMG's Grading criteria. IMG had better have got their direction right.

I watched IMG acquire BSI and take over the running of the Speedway Grand Prixs. They proved they can make the top level very attractive, but have done nothing to help (and have in fact hindered) the grass roots of that sport. There are/were other drivers so not all BSI/IMG's fault, but they were only interested in the very top. Poland are the (very) big winners mind.

From my relatively recent view of the sport, whilst I understand the benefits of a more prominent Super League, I'd argue that Rugby League is a sport that needs to expand, yet I think IMG's strategy will shrink it. With it's M62 emphasis, the only other sport I can see that is successful in a very localised part of the country is Aussie Rules in Victoria. And even there they expanded to Sydney / Brisbane / Adelaide / Perth etc. By their very strategy aren't IMG locking out any chance of expansion and limiting what they have now to France (and I'm not sure they really want that) and London (but without a strategy to get there)?