Another question is when he comes back will we show more cutting edge. I’d like to think so but I’m not entirely sure.

Yes Butler looks like he’d benefit from a rest. On his day he can be a really dominant forward but he looks a bit bust. I agree not sure how much entertainment Broncos are providing this year. Certainly have limited appetite for the Saints and Catalans home games later this year.

I'm pretty sure it was Cake or Hughes who described him as being one of the best half backs just below NRL level so if true he should be making a difference. Of course I could have imagined it after one or two pastis too many & joyfully reminiscing about our wonderful history of Southern Hemisphere half backs.

Difficult to work out. Was in the starting line-up at home to Wigan but dropped out just before kick-off. A week later he played the full 80 against Warrington. Then hasn't been named in the 21 for the last three matches; Warrington Cup, Huddersfield or Hull KR.

Considering the shortage of fit players (and the Broncos including unfit players in the 21), has the hall marks of somebody no longer employed by the club.

I've been pretty unimpressed by what I've seen of him (which is primarily trying to hit the moon with his long kicks) and Oli has looked a step up in taking over his role. Fenton Rogers is second on my list; so don't miss him.

Campagnolo is probably the only Bronco who hasn't impressed me this season. Pretty much everybody else I can't fault individually; just as a collective they can't compete. If they are looking at a Super League opportunity next season, then an awful lot of the squad have at least put themselves into consideration; bearing in mind the need to have a squad to cover injuries. The team we have put on the pitch this season has exceeded my expectations. The fault of the lack of competitiveness doesn't lie with the players or coaching staff. In my short time following the team, I've rarely seen in any sport such poor levels of off-season recruiting. Almost is if each year the recruitment was based on playing a division lower than they were in.

Pre match they have a contingent of non playing players in fan zone. Not exactly a meet and greet but they are there to varying degrees of engagement. Saw Campo last week or week before so assume he’s injured. I assume Davies is injured too as we appeared down to one hooker this week and he didn’t make the 21.
Club isn’t very good on injury updates. Wane’s injury seems to be quite serious.

On players who have or haven’t impressed, I agree most have exceeded or met my expectations. Kennedy’s off load antics coupled with an inability to make any yardage was a concern but he seems to have cut out the former and improved on the latter so that’s good. As you say Campo is the anomaly. He was given big ‘raps’ but as yet bit anonymous. Have we missed him?

Our recruitment off season last three years has been below the standard accepting all the additional challenges . Among players we need to recruit for next season in the Championship is a really consistent kicker. Leyland is doing his best but it’s hit and miss as last year and not really as SL level. Miloudi seems to be the back up and IMHO that is a recipe for disaster.

We had no chance to recruit any decent players by the time we won the million pound game, all the decent players had been signed. Also with IMG stating we will not be in Suoer League next year, who wants to play for London?

This may have been a factor, but we finished last season with more quality in the team than we have now. We should have known those players needing replacing even if we were remaining in the Championship.

Yet another excuse in a long line of them rolled out over the last 20+ years by the club. The reality is that we should never have been in such a position in the first place, so it should hardly come as any surprise that the architect off our downfall was again found wanting when it came to making key decisions back in October.
The fact that we don't have a recognised Rugby League coach (100% down to Hughes) is surely the biggest concern (or should be). Combine that with the offering or part-time roles (Hughes) in a full time "premiere" competition with the 100% assurance of championship football in 12 months (Hughes), rattling around a 75% (and growing) empty Stadium (Hughes) based on how many extra £20 we can squeeze from the shrinking fan base (Hughes and Lobster), it's no wonder that even curious ANZACS aren't bothering. Working visas have been easy to come by down here for the UK, after Brexit forced Britain to cede access to Aussies and Kiwis in return for trade deals (Irony there somewhere), so why aren't we packed with holiday making kids? Why the insistence of exposing just how poor the standard of London trained players is? Again, this is Hughes "showing his contempt" because he doesn't get his own way.
Everyone is entitled to be a little bit stupid from time to time, but Hughes has simply abused that privilege over and over again. What was needed last October was a new CEO, tasked with hard negotiations with IMG/RFL/SL and a search for an ANZAC roster with an ANZAC coach, as both would possibly score more points than a conveyer belt of average London talent.
Castlefords win at Salford has simply confirmed our finishing last this year and we will vanish with a whimper soon after.....which is a shame, because Hughes really could have blown the sport wide open if he's made it clear that all IMG were wrong by building a competitive side instead of sulking like he did in 2013/14

How did the club know which players to sign until after the million pound game? They could have signed championship players and ended up in super league or the could have signed super league players and stayed in the championship.

I see on other site that the suggestion is that our salary spend is lowest in the league: no surprise there but that it’s 1.4 million. That puts it in perspective. Probably shouldn’t but that surprises me. Imagine how much you’d have to spend to get a decent sized squad and SL standard players. We regularly make a horse’s rear of things but the cost of running a club really are verging on unsustainable.

That's easy. They should have signed SL quality players regardless. We won the championship because we had brought in some top quality players part way through the season. Before that we were pretty average.

I seem to recall we have been here before, apparently spending to the cap with a very under performing team. To quote Orangeman, somebody is stealing a living if that figure is true.

Perhaps Hughes is paying his son a big amount

I will say that when IMG binned us off, I was the first to knee-jerk and say that we should move straight back to Trailfinders or even go all in at RiskyPArk, turn up get hammered every week with an amateur squad and pocket the 1.8 million for spending over the next 5 years in the lower tier. I was joking of course, but it would seem that other than Wimbledon FC and expats fans of SL sides who live on London, nobody else is benefitting from our surprise SL status this year.
I'd hazzard a guess that the brewery are paying 2 tenths of bugger all for the shirt whilst the London Irish charity was a simple "mates call" as the corp guy has worked there before....it's really a shambles AGAIN with free tickets being handed out as confetti but achieving nothing more than a bemused locals watching us get mullered week in week out, declining fan numbers and Hughes sitting in the gold lounge surrounded by 40-80 hardcore fans thinking everything's fine.