You're mistaking "team spirit" in a reserve grade professional sport with the ENTIRE culture of a club.

Rugby League Clubs are a sports Business. Yes, success on the park is important, but there has to be a major cultural vision that everyone accepts.

What is the vision of the London Broncos?
I would say that it would be "to fly the flag for RL outside the heartlands and encourage more locals to take up or take an interest in the sport of Rugby League
What is the strategic goal that it strives to achieve?
I would day to be a successful, self sufficient and popular sports team in the London area, challenging for Trophies
What KPI's are in place to measure the performance of the business?
These should be Quarterly targets both on and off the field, with regard to performance in games at all levels, care for injured stars, recovery times together with marketing activities, attracting fans and corporates, schmoozing sponsors/potential sponsors, fulfilling community tasks. These targets need to all be measurable.
What rewards are in place for achievement?
Continued employment, job satisfaction and opportunities to progress are often more important to A players than financial reward. That said, financial reward where financial targets are achieved are important.
What are the consequences of failure?
In reality, investigation and identification for failure is often followed by remedial action, retraining, some times disciplinary action and in worst case scenarios, unemployment.

Currently at London Broncos, there is no publicly stated Vision, strategic goal and there are most assuredly no consequences for failure....all that is on offer at the moment is continued employment.

A culture of failure? May be these count:

1. Turning up to a fans forum to be told by the CEO that there will be no further players' presentations in the fans bar because the players don't like having to front up after a loss and that the CEO finds that acceptable.

2. Watching players almost falling over themselves to leave as soon as possible from the ground after a game. After the Featherstone game once the meal had ended there were more ex London players in the bar than present London players.

3. Discovering that 16 out of the 17 from the debacle last Saturday are in the squad for tonight and the one who misses out is injured. This is despite a performance which League Express said appeared to lack ambition, commitment, teamwork and any sense of pride.

I have watched this club for 26 years now and have on occasion seen some pretty poor teams. Before the last five years, the John Monie year and some of the Chiswick sides (a 46-0 home loss to Whitehaven being a particular nadir) come to mind. Prior to then I saw all of Southend Invicta's home games. At no time can I recall coming away from games being so ill disposed to the players wearing the club shirts or thinking that there was a lack of effort. I have always assumed that losses were just because we were not good enough.

Not now. Now I see players who do the bare minimum on the pitch and do not seem to want to put in the effort for their mates, despite including within their number blokes who have won NRL grand finals, played State of Origin and worn their national jersey. Presumably they performed rather better before being contracted to the Broncos. What has changed in their mindset?

Years ago I remember Brian Johnson resigning as coach of Warrington after an 80-0 Regal trophy semi-final loss because he was too embarrassed to continue. In contrast since the team sullenly walked off the field on Saturday in the main ignoring the fans who had spent their hard earned getting to Leigh, there does not appear to have even been a whisper from the club that the debacle was in any way unacceptable.

I've been told off for booing at the end of a loss and told that I should instead clap the players off so they can have more confidence for next time. Are the actions of the fan in question not a textbook indication of being part of a culture that deems failure acceptable?

Same as that. Unfortunately this is the result of the political correctness thinking for inclusion and fair play that is brainwashed into kids at school nowadays. There is no sense of competition.
This outfit need to think themselves lucky really - remember the incident between King and Wire fans when he was under performing? he went on to be a great asset to their team not long afterwards, ours cower behind their other halves on social media sites.

When Soward returns home to join Penrith, if he fails to inspire no doubt we will be blamed for breaking his spirit.

spooky.....just watching him in a replay of the bunnies at the weekend and I was thinking exactly the same thing....he was cack when he first landed.....

My memory might be playing tricks on me, but didn't someone post something on here along the lines that our team bus had to turn around on the way back from warrington because we'd found matt king in Tony Clubbs back pocket?

I went to Southend Invicta, got involved through Paul Faires! with his radio background as well, we knew each other, what a mistake that was.

I'd also add that the players, well the big name ones anyway, seem to have absolutely no respect for the club or the fans. They've come over, seen that we get tiny crowds, seen that the club is badly run, and they've slumped into a cosy little world of their own. They no longer care if they win or lose, they no longer care how hard they train or play, they no longer care about the consequences of their actions. Because their are no consequences. They still get paid, they still get to see London and Europe, they still get to live the life of a pro athlete.

I also believe that's partially why our own youngsters seem to stop developing once they graduate from the Academy. Who's setting the example? Who's teaching them the right way to approach training and games? When you also add in the poor coaching (over a long period of time) and you start to see why highly rated youngsters stagnate at this club.

Another club ticked off Gus......

Wigan fan here in peace, exiled in London and attending my second Broncos game of the season. From a neutral's viewpoint (who actually wants the game to succeed in London) tonights game against Leeds was a decent game. Had Broncos not bombed that try on the wing before half time, then who knows what may have happened. But, there are a few things that are blatantly obvious.

Broncos' best player is Soward
Broncos rely too much on Soward
There's no leadership apart from Soward
There's no spine to the team - 1, 6, 9 and 13 just don't get involved and boss the game enough
Broncos are terribly unfit, especially the forwards. I thought Paeleassina was bad, but Kaufusi (spelling?) makes him look like Stuart Fielden in his prime. You could count the number of runs he made on one hand, the number of tackles can't have been much more. Leeds always looked quicker, faster and one step ahead...
Sarginson is dodgy in defence
Broncos look like a team with very little confidence
I'm not sure what they're coached, but it isn't good enough. Apart from Soward's occasional moments of brilliance a lot of the play is predictable and one-dimensional. Not enough support players and not enough dummy runners - their timing is woefully off at times too.
Having been down to the gym where some of them train, the club gives the impression of a group of players simply happy to accept second best. They don't necessarily go out there wanting to lose, but when the chips are down, they're just not interested. The young players who go down there from other clubs just tend to make up the numbers and IMO i think some treat it as a bit of a holiday. I can't think of many who have come down south on loan and have returned to their parent clubs better players. TheyBroncos players lack intensity and drive on the field and off it...
I really want Broncos to be successful, but they're not helping themselves - i can't even start to understand why they went back to TR in the first place. The guy's clueless...

Back to Gus. I saw him in animated conversation with Gary Hetherington before last night's game. Trouble was, Gus was doing all the talking when he should have been listening!

Thanks for that post. Good to see an assessment from someone neutral. Personally I wonder about the attitude of those expressing satisfaction after yet another defeat; perhaps they are just more optimistic than I am. You could argue that the London players and many of the fans suit each other, happy to settle for losing all the time. For me the club is massively disappointing at administrative, coaching, and playing levels.

I think it's pretty much what we already know.

Kafusi is good fro two 10 minute bursts, one in each half, and he's been playing far more minutes than he can handle recently.

We know about Dan Sarginson's defensive frailty, the big question is if we can deal with it? It may take a move to a better coaching structure to sort it out, as his attack has great potential. It would be a shame to see his talent wasted because we cannot fix the main weakness in what has the potential to be a great game.

We have too many bit part players and journeymen on the permanant staff, so the loans only make it worse, if they come for a few months then it's a stop gap, if they come for a year like Ben Jones-Bishop then it's to get some SL experience. The major problem here is that we're not competitive and we don't seem to be developing our own potential, so sending loan players for experience is not a good ploy at the moment.

I suspect we went to TR because he was willing to do the job knowing tehre was no magic money box to bring in decent players. At Salford Noble is actually signing some players (albeit most past their prime), in London we don't know what's coming out of the bag if anything. Most of our "big" players were actually fairly solid squad players when they played for better teams.

Hello Jabs

I hardly ever post on here and maybe have not for a few years however i sometimes browse this forum and saw this post.

I worked with Paul in France for 4/5 years and know him pretty well, and am well aware of his history with regards to the club however as one that sometimes meets up with him every few years for a beer,i really feel that someone should post some reality as to what he has done for RL over 12/15 years (Its a hidden secret that many do not know) sadly nowadays after he was totally put down by fake allegations he is lost to the sport although i have a sneaky feeling from what i am told that several clubs on the side look to him or the people working for him for sponsorsicon_smile.gif

I have not been in contact with Paul for a couple of years as i know that he now lives in Russia with his wife and children one who sadly is disabled however from what i do know this is the person that raised over £ 20 Million for RL over several years and never even sought a thank you from anyone.

Engage/Gillette/LDF/GB Think pretty much every sponsor was found by Paul + without his know how and a considerable financial input one SL club would not have survived a few years ago along with French RL for which he raised thousands and 2 SL clubs for which he found shirt sponsors one of which ended up as the principal sponsor for several years.

David

Statistical note: 6 out of our 12 'home' gates this season have been under 2000.