Will we ever know why Hughes voted for the ranking system that was always going to see us excluded from SL. Maybe he just wanted an out or perhaps this is just the latest in his series of dummy spits ?

The thing is, we were not expected to be in SL this season (though deserved to be). When the vote was made, surely we would have been planning on being a Championship side. The squad assembled for this season clearly suggests we had expected to be playing in the championship. How would we have fared in that league ? Let's say we finished in the top 3. Would Hughes still be putting the club up for sale ?

I appreciate Hughes has put in a lot of money but not in a particulary effective manner. He is clearly leaving the club in worse shape than when he took over as sole owner.

Interesting to note that the accounts for London Rugby League Limited are overdue. The accounts made up to 30 November 2023
were due by 31 August 2024.

The company has 100 ordinary shares, with Hughes taking on the 65 owned by Lenegan on 01 Dec 2010 to have sole ownership.

The last posted accounts made up to 30 Nov 2022, show creditors of almost £27.5m. A small proportion of this may be Lenegan but primarily it would be Hughes.

As of 30 Dec 2022, all the shareholding was in the name of Jack Hughes though Hughes senior is still shown as the sole director and the only person with significant control.

I am told that the vote to bring IMG into the RFL fold, was on the platform that IMG will sort out Rugby League, just leave it to them.
Somewhat like the Labour Manifesto in the last election, there was no detail and once in place they started adding all sort of things. Most of which nobody in the sport likes.
David Hughes just went with the flow like so many other chairmen, only to get caught out by the fine detail.

Can’t argue with that. He’s spent a load of money and energy over the years it hasn’t worked but the way we’ve gone at it this season has been odd. IIRC Newcastle United had an owner everyone hated and eventually he wanted out. What he didn’t do was run the club down (intentionally) what he did do was spend a bit, maybe not loads but a bit, to shore up the investment so it was sellable. That makes sense. Letting all our players leave is odd. Not recruiting is odd. Spending a lot trying to improve off field and then pulling the plug is odd. Of course, the oddest thing was the move to big new ground, make no effort to engage with the local area and compile a poor side/coach. So a positive person would say we are on an upward trajectory. And then of course compared to Keighley we look a model club.

On the other site there was a suggestion that Mr Hughes hasn’t been attending matches recently. That’s a bit sad considering what he’s put into the club. Me, I gave the 2nd Cats at home match a swerve which is typical as it was one of only two at home we won.

That's simply not right. Proposals were presented to clubs in Dec 2022 with details being provided to clubs in Feb 2023 and some revisions in March 2023 prior to the vote in April 2023. The March 2023 version of the grading system is still available rlhererl.

It was perfectly possible to calculate our score from the March 2023 publication. I did it myself and was very close to our provisional grading. Hughes voted in favour of that grading system. Our fate under it should have been very clear to him.

There were some minor adjstments afterwards but nothing too significant.

Hughes did not criticise the grading system until Jan 2024 some time after the indicative grading placing us 24th had been issued in October 2023.

Maybe difficult to watch players fighting so hard when you know you're going to sell them down the river.

David Hughes was not present on Friday, nor was his side kick Stevo. Jack was there but not David.
Stevo and Jack were in Perpignan, however I did not see David but he may have been there.

Not sure it’s ‘sell’ more like leave by the river in the hopes so itinerant bargee picks them up and goes off with them. What a revolting development this all is but I have to say even the impending collapse of the club doesn’t leave me as depressed as those first few games in 2022. What a load of old pony.

rlhttps://www.londonbroncosrl.com/david-hughes-statement-23-9-24rl

That's a pretty short exit statement. I'm not dissapointed he's gone because he has taken the club backwards. I hope someone comes in and can build us back up but sort of seems unlikely. To that end, I would hope the club has been looking for new investment for some time otherwise there is a lot of work to do if the club is to continue.

I'm guessing that the owners of Ebbsfleet are keen to take over.

Our season ended on Friday so good to know. Better late than never I suppose. I’ve seen more timely bankruptcy notices. Shambles.

I could have reworked it for him. ‘I left 3 days ago. Sort it out amongst yourselves. Ta ra’. Didn’t even put the boot into IMG. I think this is the definition of a dummy spit. Shame really but what can you do. RL is in a precarious place generally.

Women's team season isn't over.