Re: Off Season Recruitment - By The Month : Wed Apr 05, 2023 8:05 am  

BigTime wrote:

Now Eckersley to Widnes on a month’s loan! Are there any Champ clubs they aren’t in DR with? At least they’re even handed but will be interesting to see if this DR bares any more fruit or if it’s simply a way of saying ‘we’ve loaned you Silva for the season’ which is gratefully received by the way but if we aren’t signing anyone then a few more loanees might be useful especially if all the other clubs are getting in on the act.

It's strange and bit concerning that we appear to be getting overlooked. On current evidence I'm not sure how reliant upon Wigan we can be, if we suddenly find ourselves in need of some emergency cover, as will no doubt happen at some point. Silva and Hill aside, the majority of the players Wigan look to have available are outside backs and hookers/half backs, not positions that we are really in great need of currently. I would be happy if we were able to keep Silva for the remainder of the season as you say. I doubt we will see much more of Miski now that Jai Field is out for a couple of months and he's played well for them when called upon.

I wonder how much geography is playing into some of the decision making and whether we have the same issue in attracting DR players as we do permanent signings from up north i.e. are players willing to take themselves away from home to come down for a part time spell and how attractive a proposition are we making it? If we can't offer a full time environment, then what else do we really have?

Re: Off Season Recruitment - By The Month : Wed Apr 05, 2023 9:44 am  

To all intents and purposes this season looks like a bit of a write off off field wise. It’s not easy to see quite where they can have a push to get interest going again. I wonder if they should make efforts to advertise the July2 game against Newcastle together with some work on the ground in the immediate environs of PL. if I’m right Football will not have started yet, the schools/scouts etc will still be on and available for free tickets and holiday season not started. Maybe that is the opportunity to make some noise. On the plus side there is a game at home the next week to gather momentum. On the negative it’s Toulouse and on a Saturday breaking the Sunday afternoon slot vibe. Neither side will bring many supporters with them but if we don’t make a push then there is only realistically the run of 3 home games in Sept to grow an audience and encourage sponsors of the value of supporting the team although I would have thought late in the season is a bad time to advertise the club.

Re: Off Season Recruitment - By The Month : Wed Apr 05, 2023 10:42 am  

It seems obvious from the squads assembled that Hughes has written off all the seasons leading upto the IMG restucturing. By showing no ambition to get promoted on the field Hughes shows contempt for longstanding fans and limits the ability to attract new ones. London needs a competitive side to stand any chance of growing the fan base.

Re: Off Season Recruitment - By The Month : Wed Apr 05, 2023 11:29 am  

BigTime wrote:

To all intents and purposes this season looks like a bit of a write off off field wise. It’s not easy to see quite where they can have a push to get interest going again. I wonder if they should make efforts to advertise the July2 game against Newcastle together with some work on the ground in the immediate environs of PL. if I’m right Football will not have started yet, the schools/scouts etc will still be on and available for free tickets and holiday season not started. Maybe that is the opportunity to make some noise. On the plus side there is a game at home the next week to gather momentum. On the negative it’s Toulouse and on a Saturday breaking the Sunday afternoon slot vibe. Neither side will bring many supporters with them but if we don’t make a push then there is only realistically the run of 3 home games in Sept to grow an audience and encourage sponsors of the value of supporting the team although I would have thought late in the season is a bad time to advertise the club.

Newcastle and Toulouse will be played at Ebbsfleet as Plough Lane doesn't appear to have been made available to the Broncos in the first half of July.

There is a (final?) opportunity to get momentum at Plough Lane. A nine weeks period as follows:
- 30th July - York
- 6th August - Away
- 12th August - Wembley Final ! (it is realistically possible)
- 20th August - Halifax
- 27th August - Whitehaven
- 3rd September - Away
- 10th September - Widnes
- 17th September - Bradford
- 24th September - Keighley

6 matches in 9 weeks. A good set of opposition, no obvious stuffings. Two or three teams with good away followings. Nice time of year weather wise. A mix of school holiday and term time.

Re: Off Season Recruitment - By The Month : Wed Apr 05, 2023 11:51 am  

jbuzza wrote:

It seems obvious from the squads assembled that Hughes has written off all the seasons leading upto the IMG restucturing. By showing no ambition to get promoted on the field Hughes shows contempt for longstanding fans and limits the ability to attract new ones. London needs a competitive side to stand any chance of growing the fan base.

The club moves to PL, goes part time and puts out the weakest Broncos team I have seen and suffer a series of defeats.
Their stated aim of growing the crowd to 5K was and is a delusion. As jbuzza says, to grow the fan base, the club needs a very competitive team and also, proper promotion. hell, they cannot even do decent Social Media at the moment.
It is a sad state of affairs. With very little possibility as I see it, of it ever improving.

Re: Off Season Recruitment - By The Month : Wed Apr 05, 2023 11:58 am  

Smithers99 wrote:

Newcastle and Toulouse will be played at Ebbsfleet as Plough Lane doesn't appear to have been made available to the Broncos in the first half of July.

There is a (final?) opportunity to get momentum at Plough Lane. A nine weeks period as follows:
- 30th July - York
- 6th August - Away
- 12th August - Wembley Final ! (it is realistically possible)
- 20th August - Halifax
- 27th August - Whitehaven
- 3rd September - Away
- 10th September - Widnes
- 17th September - Bradford
- 24th September - Keighley

6 matches in 9 weeks. A good set of opposition, no obvious stuffings. Two or three teams with good away followings. Nice time of year weather wise. A mix of school holiday and term time.

Ah yes I had forgotten we are off to Kent. It seems to me then that the gap between York game and the rest is a bit too big unless we get to Wembley. If we do they summon what resources they have and really push. If not Halifax is the game to target - they will bring fans especially if we liaise the and explain where people can park etc. It is however a difficult game. If we mess it up we are back to zero again.

Re: Off Season Recruitment - By The Month : Mon Apr 17, 2023 12:29 pm  

Interesting contrast between our two PNG internationals against Fev. I thought Emmanuel ran his blood to water and for a big bloke he certainly got battered around. Came up with some errors, but mostly from trying hard to impact the game, so I can accept that. Came off injured at the end so fingers crossed nothing serious, as we need his presence.

Wellington on the other hand, I'm not sure we have really seen the best of so far this season. For somebody whose strength is supposed to be his offloading, he's making some really poor decisions. I wouldn't say he is even our most impactful forward at the minute either, Marcus, Jordan and Lewis are all playing more consistently.

A bit unfair to single him out perhaps and there were plenty who made errors yesterday, but as one of our overseas signings and I assume one of our bigger earners, he needs to have more impact. Not sure I would look to extend him and he seems to have maybe mentally ticked the 'heading back down under' box.

Re: Off Season Recruitment - By The Month : Mon Apr 17, 2023 1:06 pm  

Knocker_White wrote:

Interesting contrast between our two PNG internationals against Fev. I thought Emmanuel ran his blood to water and for a big bloke he certainly got battered around. Came up with some errors, but mostly from trying hard to impact the game, so I can accept that. Came off injured at the end so fingers crossed nothing serious, as we need his presence.

Wellington on the other hand, I'm not sure we have really seen the best of so far this season. For somebody whose strength is supposed to be his offloading, he's making some really poor decisions. I wouldn't say he is even our most impactful forward at the minute either, Marcus, Jordan and Lewis are all playing more consistently.

A bit unfair to single him out perhaps and there were plenty who made errors yesterday, but as one of our overseas signings and I assume one of our bigger earners, he needs to have more impact. Not sure I would look to extend him and he seems to have maybe mentally ticked the 'heading back down under' box.

Yes I agree. I had thought it was henry that picked up a knock but agreed Wayne worked hard. I’m not sure Albert is doing big minutes and when he is on I’m not sure he’s pulling up trees either. Some one was making some pretty dodgy offload decision, not sure who it was Albert or Waine. The problem is we are a bit one dimensional so I wouldn’t want to discourage the practice but the execution needs to be better. We coughed up too much ball. And the there was our ‘attempts’ to stop the long distance second try. Very poor that.

Re: Off Season Recruitment - By The Month : Tue Apr 25, 2023 2:07 pm  

Whilst our Elite 1 recruitment wasn't necessarily the most successful last season, possibly still a cheap and easy way of bolstering our squad once players become available at the end of May. I doubt any of those named, outside the Catalans players, will be in with a shout of a Super League deal. https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/fr ... ague-moves

Whilst our Elite 1 recruitment wasn't necessarily the most successful last season, possibly still a cheap and easy way of bolstering our squad once players become available at the end of May. I doubt any of those named, outside the Catalans players, will be in with a shout of a Super League deal. https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/fr ... ague-moves

Re: Off Season Recruitment - By The Month : Tue Apr 25, 2023 3:07 pm  

Knocker_White wrote: Whilst our Elite 1 recruitment wasn't necessarily the most successful last season, possibly still a cheap and easy way of bolstering our squad once players become available at the end of May. I doubt any of those named, outside the Catalans players, will be in with a shout of a Super League deal. https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/fr ... ague-moves Would make sense and fit with our anyone but from the North policy. However, I suspect we may just not bother. Remember we have to find a new ground and one thing at a time is the way we like to do things. Let’s leave recruitment to one minute before next season starts.

Knocker_White wrote: Whilst our Elite 1 recruitment wasn't necessarily the most successful last season, possibly still a cheap and easy way of bolstering our squad once players become available at the end of May. I doubt any of those named, outside the Catalans players, will be in with a shout of a Super League deal. https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/fr ... ague-moves Would make sense and fit with our anyone but from the North policy. However, I suspect we may just not bother. Remember we have to find a new ground and one thing at a time is the way we like to do things. Let’s leave recruitment to one minute before next season starts.