London Broncos coach calls for club’s incredible journey to be ‘celebrated’ before final plea to IMG
London Broncos head coach Mike Eccles
London Broncos coach Mike Eccles has called on rugby league to recognise and celebrate the journey the club has taken as the curtain prepares to come down on their stay in Super League: before making one last plea to IMG about the club’s future.
With two rounds of the Super League season remaining, London could yet avoid finishing bottom of Super League. That is despite most observers insisting their predominantly part-time squad wouldn’t win a single game in 2024.
But that squad has gone from the brink of relegation to League 1 in 2022 to holding its own amongst the elite in just two years: underlined by the fact they have taken Leeds Rhinos to golden point on two separate occasions. Almost three-quarters of London’s squad was produced in the capital, too.
And Eccles insists that while the obvious uncertainty over their future and their situation with IMG will grab the headlines, the Broncos’ journey to returning to Super League should not simply be forgotten.
In a passionate interview with Love Rugby League, Eccles said: “I’ve had immense pride in them since we started. I don’t think this story gets enough credit for what we’ve achieved as a group but what the game has also subsequently achieved.
“What London Broncos have done, as a homegrown squad, within two years – to be nearly relegated to League 1 to now holding our own in Super League.
“If you go back to that comeback against Sheffield (in July 2022, when London were 28-0 down at half-time but won 36-28), a world record comeback, that started the journey. I have so much pride in this club.
“Spending a third of our main competitors and now in with a shot of staying off the bottom? That should be celebrated, whatever happens next. London are doing this from within, with homegrown players, I think that’s just a magic story and a massive success for us as a sport. It’s been done properly, sustainably.. and now we risk throwing it away.”
Eccles admits he has been ‘damaged’ by the trials and tribulations of this season, with London effectively knowing they would be relegated before they had played a single minute of action in 2024. But he insists he takes great pride in restoring the credibility of the club among the game’s supporters.
He said: “I’ve been damaged as a staff member but I know the fans have been really damaged. We’ve not been great since we got relegated in 2019: on and off the field. There were some things out of our control but we just wanted to put some pride back into London Broncos. I think we’ve done that.
“This year, the wider game has seen we’re easy to get on board with, we’re colourful right down to the kit we wear, honouring our history with the quadrant shirt.. and the make-up of the team too, of course. So many London-produced players. That’s great. British sports fans will get behind you if they see you’re leaving it on the field every week.”
Eccles and London appear to have all-but admitted defeat in their plans to remain in Super League next year. However, he has once again passionately laid out a plea to IMG to find some way to allow the club to move forwards with a plan.
He said: “We’re at that point now where this can work. We’ve got things wrong as a club and centrally the game has got things wrong around London, with pulling funding and things like that.
“But it’s there now. It’s ready. Objectively you can write down the things that are going on in London – the players from the region holding their own in Super League, the stadium, the match-day atmosphere, even the crowds going up – it’s all working.
“My fear is just losing all this traction and how far back it’s going to set us. The players we’re producing, the venue we play at, it’s all fantastic.. I just find it a desperate shame we can’t build on it.
“Is there not a conversation to be had around grading and London having an exemption? We can’t split the financial pot any further, we get that and aren’t asking for money. But could you not have had a conversation about how we can make this work instead of throwing it away?”
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