Many of us tried to explain to the club (or at least the club's simian rep on here) that this plan wouldn't work. We'd seen it before, in times when London hadn't yet become one of the world's most expensive cities to live in. Of course, no-one listened.

Hi,

I do not think any of Danny, Tom or Jermaine could have put out a Championship standard team this season.

The powers that be made it so that no contracts of either a full time or part time status could be offered until the season was over which alienated existing and new potential signings.

Offers were much less than the player was already on, and some offers were said to be under £200 a week.

It was thus possible for offers such as £15k with accommodation being sufficient to take players north.

I think the idea of signing players from the north and paying near nothing was absurd and ludicrous.

The minimum the club would need to do is offer accommodation, enough money to live on, and help getting work.

If they had to break the club by going part time, they should have signed about 6 first team standard players and made them also the manager, assistant manager, head of commercial, media manager etc.

They could have got some good older players then.

After a year or two they might get better jobs and vacate them for new signings.

Is Hughes running out of money or interest ? Is he seeking other investment or expertise to save the club ?

Thanks Mark. A devastating post which makes for awful reading. Quite how anyone thought moving to a SL standard stadium and paying players next to nothing would work is brain boggling.

Quite how those northern based players we were promised managed to resist such an offer will forever be a mystery, to the clueless people who promoted the theory, but not to anyone with any experience of southern RL.

Sadly a very Broncos thing to do.

My take on it

Hughes spat out his dummy around mid season last year when it was obvious that even if we made the playoffs, we would not be going up. In addition with the idiocity to hike the season tickets so much, which meant nobody would pay the prices to watch the tripe on offer, meant that not only was we not going up, but we had gates of circa 250 people.

So he blamed the team, decided he was not offering contracts, he was going part time. No wonder that the players fell off at the end of last season, what incentive was there to play a playoff match they would lose, when they all knew they would leave at the end of the season anyway.

I'm really not worried about next year, I think the whole franchise rests on the next 2 home matches. Lose to Dewsbury, and you will have <500 for the Newcastle game , and those 2 points happening will cause him to just stop.

Going to try and enjoy the dewsbury game I really fear it will be one of the last games played by the club

I think you may well be right Crash. Worth also saying that last years 250 gates included a sizeable proportion of friends and family. I’d say under 200 paying guests was the norm: failing to take any steps to address that really was a mistake and disconnected many from the club it seems. As to Dewsbury : with respect to them not a major draw but I really urge everyone to turn up because this is the season right there. As for the Newcastle Friday night game with no travelling fans I suspect sub 500- I’ll go straight from work but even then no walk in the park to get there.

Hi all,

I'll try to give a balanced opinion.

Firstly, when David Hughes was first involved with the club he was in his mid 50s and a working trader, whose bonuses alone were said to be more than enough to pay his entire contribution to the club.

I'm led to believe he is now 78 years old and I would be astonished if he is still working regularly, though it is not impossible.

My view is that his own personal financial circumstances have changed.

The club's income has also massively reduced, from over 1 million in 2019, to probably the best part of a million in 2020, with the parachute payment to probably only a couple of hundred grand or so as of now, before the gate.

Media articles of the past suggest that Mr Hughes was very much of the view he wanted to "protect his family pot".

Where I think his head was turned, is that he has been sold on the idea that Featherstone, for a much lower spend, has managed to build a borderline SL standard squad; whilst even Whitehaven last season did very well on a minimal budget.

In some ways, I think Hughes felt that there could be an opportunity to bring in very good part time players; players who in theory might not even join at all with a full time commitment.

I do also think that the senior leadership team at the Broncos felt that the London trained players could be directly replaced by similar or even higher quality players from the academy and/or that there were players just as good at London Skolars.

For instance, if Sam Davis did not sign you could put in Rob Oakley whilst Gideon Boafo could be swapped for a Macani or a Caro.

Also, there were plenty of tip offs of third division players ready to step up; about 8 from Skolars, 2 or 3 from West Wales plus perhaps more realistic prospects such as Foster.

I think the club was all too willing to overlook the continual past unavailability of players too such as Albert as well as over-rating existing players abilities.

For instance I did not perceive that either of Leyland or Horsman were midtable Championship standard, nor quite a few others such as Oakley, Blakemore and Latu. In fact, there were quite a few I thought were no better than the bottom three in League one. I had previously seen the Broncos reserves away at Coventry Bears, and did not come away impressed.

I felt that the better club trained players were Boafo (who was one of our best 4 players) plus Jones, Sam Davis, Hindmarsh and perhaps Williams.

The mid level ones were probably Hodson, Adebiyi, Ogden and Egodo; I could see why they might be released due to missing games or perhaps lack of tryscoring threat.

The ones I felt might be lacking the necessary ability or who were just finished were Horsman, Leyland, Oakley and Blakemore.

Also, of the existing squad, I felt that Hankinson, Miski, Sammut and Fozard were critical players. We needed players of this calibre. I could see why you would crack down on non performers like Moran and Navarette and maybe some of the injury prone lads. But not all had let the club down.

Players like Walters and Hindmarsh simply refused to agree terms; others like Meadows were enticed on relatively modest terms; he is then said to have played in Hodson. Other players moved to take an actual offer after waiting all season; for instance Aston waited all year to go.

I was told that the club did target past leavers where it was felt there was some chance, but for instance Toby Everett and Jon Magrin were said to have settled down and others like Joe Keyes may feel they were treated poorly in the past. Also, some of the players were at clubs with greater prospects like Halifax.

I can see why there has been a desire for cost savings and I can see why things have gone the way they have, but I think the club has been perceived as having bad people involved; also that these bad people have bad judgement.

The truth is that the catchment area for Featherstone is perfect; there are about 5 or 6 clubs in each of the top three leagues in close proximity.

Whitehaven might one season in ten hit lucky.

But you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater in a catchment area of few or no replacement players.

Depressing but highly plausible.The idea that there was plenty of like for like quality at Skolars can only have been based on the belief that it was other weaker players and/or poor coaching that held them back. By hiring pretty much the entire 1st team and coach and assistant coach they unpicked their own logic.

The problems faced by the club both on and off the park stem from inactivity in key areas years ago. Those clubs who actively engaged with their audiences over a prolonged period of time, with regular and meaningful communication are the clubs who are doing best as we emerge from the covid period.
Hughes decision to downgrade his investment was always going to come. His inability to get anyone else to join him points to both how niche a sport we are and how his personality doesn't always fit with others.
If the club had knuckled down and worked to a 5 or 10 year target back in 2009, (I say) they'd still be at quins, till be in SL and probably have the 6 or 7k fans needed to stay afloat.
As it is, the writing is in the wall now. Even if we survive the drop, I can't see either the dons being keen on us staying and there's little chance of Hughes reopening his chequebook, so we may limp through another season, but it'll be to an aging and shrinking audience.
It really could have been so different if the other SL club/RFL had let Lenagan keep his interest in Quins RL......but.like the decision to promote Leigh over us, they showed how narrow minded the sport is.

The death knell for League and, to a lesser extent, the Broncos came when (COVID aside) the Toronto Wolfpack was voted out and Leigh were promoted. Now that's narrow-minded from the M62 chairmen.

In the time it has taken David Hughes to cremate the club (2013-2022), Sarries have invested in Copthall and added 2,500 to their average gates, The Irish have moved in to Brentford and added 2,500 and Wasps relocated to coventry and added 4k.
I agree that the RFL and essentially a handful of northern businessmen have a fair amount of blood on their hands, but in this post covid era, it really will be each to their own for the foreseeable, so this master plan of Hughes and Loubser is even more puzzling.

There's no way a part time side based in the south will attract the calibre of players needed to challenge for a SL spot, so why move away from Ealing? Loubser and Hughes need to find a solution to this and find it fast.....it's either spend more and get full time players or move the club back to Ealing and grow the club/fanbase up.

I've said it before. For every Million Hughes has flushed down the bowl, he's flushed a million of central funding too.....I'd be back at Ealing next year with a mix of full time and part time players, the academy, the Kids and the Ladies all playing there and a massive spend on Customer Relations/Communications.