I would hope to hear some positive news on retention before the end of the regular season. I guess its difficult for the club to get players to re-commit at this time of year, particularly the overseas contingent and whilst I'm not sure anyone would be spirited away by a SL club, there will surely be interest from the other established Championship clubs. You would also assume whichever club falls out of SL would be able to offer a full time environment, which is a consideration.
Would very much like to see us keep a hold of Whare and Norman and the fact they don't appear to have deals lined up for Elite 1 yet makes me hopeful on that front. Natoli, Parata, Bassett and Ulberg have become big parts of our squad and I'd like to see them retained.
I don't think we have seen the best of Waine on a consistent basis, however I would be happy to have him go around again with the benefit of a proper pre-season and some experience at this level.
Raiwalui and Albert look to be a bit on the outer currently, however I guess we'll see how the end of season plays out and what they are able to bring.
It certainly feels as though the uptick in performances and results has made the club a more attractive proposition. We will always face the challenge of geography and cost of living in terms of recruiting from the 'heartland', however I feel we've had a decent look at how the academy player x overseas talent could work moving forward.

Worth noting too a screenshot from a Skolars fans Facebook site has appeared online in which it's basically confirmed the club "may" have to drop out of the pro game.

There could be a medium to long term impact on Broncos / wider London RL depending on exactly what happens out White Hart Lane way.

Would be a real shame if that's the case. Reading recent comments from Joe Mbu and he seemed to still be speaking about preparing for next season, but who really knows at the end of the day?

Agreed.
I suppose Joe will continue to make preparations until someone tells him not to bother.
Seems Skolars have really struggled since we raided their squad last season.

We certainly did Skolars no favours back then.
They do seem to be in a mess. No wins and a crappy stadium, it is hard to see that they have a future.

What we did to them did neither club any favours. Interesting though that of all the dozen or so players we co-opted then dropped when reality set in only Juma and Thomas appear to have continued playing at Skolars. On e presumes the others have dropped out of the game (rather than play for Skolars). As for this year we had quite a few youngsters who may have benefitted from game time there but for whatever reason very few played at Skolars on loan. I. One Max Allen didn’t play in their last home game although I believe Jack Hughes did.

I agree with all that and your player assessment. Who knows who will want to move on of the Uk based players. I doubt many of us would have envisaged Batley being a bigger draw than London so we shouldn’t rule it out but it seems to me not worth the effort for, say Beinik, to move to a team like Bradford who appear marginally better than us but if a SL club weighed in that might be different. Trinity are the X factor here. They will be in the market for players and may take a punt. I wonder if Horsman might move on/ be moved on. As for the Academy prospects some haven’t figured at all eg Howarth so it will be interesting to see what we do. One assumes we should give them time to mature but game time is needed and whilst we have flirted with the bottom of the table that has been too big a risk at times.

I think we have a fair chance of retaining the Antipodeans we want although, as before, I assume we are a ‘summer job’ for Whare and Norman. The one I’m not sure about is Parata. I think his other job is property renovation/ development. I suspect it is North based where prices to buy fixer uppers are more manageable. If so an offer from Bradford, Widnes might be of interest to him.

We? We didn't do anything to the Skolars!
What Hughes did to the Skolars was just a faster version of what he has done to the Broncos.
The only difference is that at the Broncos you could argue it was consensual.

I think for the likes of Bienek, Butler and Walker, it would maybe be less of a consideration now, given they have already had that experience of playing up north at the highest level. You could say the same also about Davis and Stock. It didn't really work out for any of them long term, but as you say who knows? It's ultimately a very short career and why not take a gamble if someone is willing to throw a decent amount your way?

It's not often with UK players that circumstances fall into our favour regards recruitment, but I think for all the dramas of recent seasons, the club has done a decent job of bringing players back into the fold, whether more down to personal circumstances or not.

I'm surprised with the constant upheaval and disruption to the reserve grade system and with the lack of a regular 'feeder club' on our doorstep, we haven't looked more closely at running an 'A Grade' side in the Southern Conference/London League like Skolars have. It would give us an extra outlet for player development and I assume the costs would be pretty minimal.

The reserves and academy have only won one game each this season so maybe we do need to try something different.

Beinik can earn more money doing his job and playing part-time for Broncos than playing in Superleague. These are considerations at this level.

Walker most likely the same.
Both players are probably at the point where they're looking at their future once they stop playing.
Present situation allows them to keep playing and develop careers outside of rugby league.

That's an often overlooked point. Unfortunately the Southern playing pool is too small for it to seriously assist Broncos as it stands.

Years ago the then non league Crawley Town FC had a city worker play for them. His full time job had a contractual minimum bonus of £250k p.a. Strangely enough he regularly turned down one year contracts at 30k or so from lower level Football League sides.

If the London(ish) RL player pool ever develops to serious numbers there would almost certainly be a few good players not wanting to play full time.

Would be interesting to know if less or more Championship level (or better) players are being developed in the London area than in the past. My gut feeling is less but don't have any data to support that.

The decline in junior sides and loss of stepping stone sides such as Oxford and (professional) Hemel makes a decline almost inevitable. The development sides results this season suggest the club is seeing an impact from the general RL situation down south.