Is it dead yet ? : Sat Jul 27, 2013 11:14 pm
Last year, I wrote that I thought there was a real stench of death around the Broncos. Pretty much every aspect of the club was in serious decline, both on and off the field. More importantly though, because all clubs go through bad times (and my signature strip is a reminder that other clubs have had worse hammerings just one stage earlier in the challenge cup), it seemed like there wasn't even an attempt to get the adrenaline shot out.When Wigan hit the rocks, you could see they did everything (including cheating) to pull themselves back up. When Bradford hit last year the local community, fans, coach and players clearly were trying everything to steady the ship. When Huddersfield and Widnes had their respective periods of doldrums, they put the metaphorical boats out with a towline and kept rowing till they got the wind in their sails again.
But London - nothing. No new owner, no effort from the players, no sign of any significant attempt to arrest the calamitous fall in support. It's like a zombie club. Apart from a hardcore few hundred fans, there's simply no sign of passion, determination or even that anyone cares. Hughes has let it be known he's retiring. The Clubb captain has thrown in the towel publicly. The chief exec seems to write his rare announcements by using a random word-generating machine, and has precisely no plan for next year. The fans are turning black humour and despair into an art form. The players aren't even pretending to care - Dorn actually ran away from O'Loughlin today when he broke the line, and I can't watch the highlights of London games because I see "tackling" from pro players every week which is of a significantly worse standard than I see in most of the amateur games I referee around the city.
I know London is a special case - I've been actively involved in rugby league in the city now for more than 20 years - and I know it's harder than it is up north, with fewer committed fans, or local businessmen with an interest. But there's no energy. No sign that anyone, from any part of the club, is injecting any real desire to improve. The whole club feels like an ER room when a DoA case is brought in. People are going through the motions, but nobody is going to waste sweat on this one.
For the first time, I no longer believe the London club is going to survive. In fact, it would not surprise me at all if London folded at the end of this season. Everything about the club is currently pointing that way. There's no fight left. There are no strong statements about the future. There are no ambitious goals or forceful personalities. The corpse is barely twitching.
Is it dead yet ? Is there any light ? Or are we all going to have to accept the end of Fulham/Crusaders/Quins RL/Broncos ?
