Hi Moe,

It's hard to say with Hughes involved. As you say it doesn't look encouraging. It's also hard to see how IMG & RFL can raise the profile of the sport if all the teams are stuck in the North + Cats. Even Morrisons headed south to make more money.

Hughes seems to thrive on brinkmanship, but this time.......

It’s extremely easy to get negative about Broncos future and bearing in mind the 2022 season a reasonable position to take but I tend to shy away from claims the club will fold……but as I see it we seem to have doubled down on our position that we ‘deserve’ to be in SL and will do nothing until we know the outcome. As I understand it we have done no recruitment and very little in the way of retention moves- there has been some discussion of offers of pay for play contracts which seem to my untrained eye to be highly unattractive except in very limited circumstances. As, I believe the club will only hear that it’s to be kept in SL or relegated a couple of weeks post season’s end it is difficult to see how we could credibly recruit for either SL or championship. As to where we play- I’m unclear on the contract with AFC but if we are relegated (the most likely option by some margin) then the expense is unjustifiable and rationale disappears. How can we move to another ground in an orderly fashion in the short time frame before season starts- I don’t know. Feels to me like a 25% chance it’s game over- but we’ll see.

Sam Davis to Salford it appears. Good move for him and them. Worked hard and think he'll look a lot better in a decent team.

That is a good move for him. Good luck to him he works hard and helped us raise our standards post Coleman. I suspect, like Leyland O, he will find game time limited but well worth a try. This feels like what happened last time we got relegated players who maybe could play SL were signed up (I guess on the cheap) just in case. The difference this time seems to be that we have made absolutely no effort to keep the players and that they are, in a broad sense, home grown southern players rather than players wanting to settle back down in Widnes or some such. This does rather put a different perspective on it - I suspect we may well be picked clean here including to fairly unimpressive Championship sides. What a way to go about our business!

On the assumption Hughes has too much money invested in Broncos to let it go belly up, I can't wait to hear what his great masterplan turns out to be for next season.

It will be interesting but with complete radio silence we can only guess and mine is that we will go: ‘it’s not our fault it’s IMGs and now we’ll just have to play our youth team and see if we can pick up a couple half way through the season.’ That just isn’t acceptable. One X factor is where we will play. Does anyone know if we are contractually committed to Plough Lane for next year? If not then they will need to put arrangements in place much quicker than we’ve seen in recent years to source a new ground, notify everyone and get in sponsors, season tickets and pretty much everything. Difficult to see big take up on any of those metrics if we are at Rosslyn Park. What a mess.

My understanding is there is a single mutually agreed breakpoint allowing either AFC Wimbledon or the London Broncos to terminate the contract. My guess is that is either after two or three years. We are at three years at the end of the current season.

One point to ponder is if the quality of the stadium related IMG grading scores were to drop by leaving Plough Lane, the Broncos grading may be insufficient to be of Championship level. Whilst a stretch, the Broncos have limited leeway whilst ranked 24th.

Imagine Newcastle remain ranked ahead of the Broncos. That would highlight the fallacy of the grading system.

Thanks Smithers. Newcastle fall from grace also shows how precarious a position many clubs are in. I suspect upgrade in ground/crowds/ social media hits etc plus promotion would have moved us up to about 18. Which feels a bit more realistic but, as you say, moving to Roslyn Park would move us right back down again the following year. Having said that if the club are taking the approach we think they may be, then fighting for L1 leader’s shield might be the long term aim.

According to Eccles yesterday I think we have 7 players signed up for next season! Yay.

My guess is Lovell, Walker, Macani, Basset, Hughes, Adebiyi and Williams and I have based this on absolutely nothing.

Things are looking up we have almost half a team.
My guess is the 7 are not necessarily 7 starters. I’m guessing we’ve managed to convince Hughes to stay!
I have a feeling Boafo was on a two. I can see Macani staying and Basset could do a job elsewhere but I’d guess saying in London unless our offer is a Mickey take (which it may well be) is the best option as opposed to Bradford, Swinton. I think we’ll keep Lovell. The others will be kids and Davies although I suspect Walker may well stay. Williams I can see moving on, ditto Adebiyi. Basically we appear to be running down the team- very odd way to do business.

Agreed.
And it’s not as if we’ve got Skolars players ( L1 level) anyway.
Perhaps some of Bassett’s former teammates should bring their boots to games next season……….

I suspect that will be the plan….when we get around to doing any planning for next year….any at all. Sigh.

I do believe we are about to appoint Baldrick as Head of planning, which is very cunning of Hughes.

I'd be surprised if there's a London Broncos next season.