London Broncos 2024 season review
Overview
On the face of it, three wins from 27 games is a terrible season, but that doesn’t even begin to tell the story of London’s 2024 campaign.
IMG’s new grading system meant the Broncos were virtually relegated before a ball had even been kicked, so they deserve enormous credit for almost finishing 11th and remaining competitive in most of their games.
They started the year with a couple of big losses, but an agonising 28-24 loss to Hull in round three was a sign of what they could do when they got going, and their 34-18 win over the same opponents in round 11 was just reward for their efforts.
Of their other two wins, there was a second against the Black and Whites at Magic Weekend, plus a 12-10 win over Catalans Dragons in August. There were a couple of Golden Point defeats to Leeds Rhinos during the year too, which could have given the table a different complexion if they’d swung the other way.
All in all, despite their rock bottom finish, it was a year to remember for the Broncos, and one to be proud of.
Highs
The Broncos’ 29-4 win over Hull at Magic Weekend stands out, as of course do the other two wins during the campaign, but there were a fair few highs off the field as well.
London had some of their highest crowds in more than a decade in 2024, with over 5,000 turning out to watch them at home on more than one occasion. The return to Twickenham Stoop for a fixture with St Helens was a success (off the pitch at least), and attendances at Plough Lane remained fairly steady throughout the year.
The Broncos continued to provide a pathway for young talent in the South East as well, with a number of locally developed players appearing regularly throughout the year. And whilst a number of them will be departing for pastures new in 2025, London can be proud of the part they’ve played in developing them into professional players in the first place.
Lows
The Broncos started 2024 under a cloud thanks to the IMG announcement, so the lows were hanging around all year.
On the pitch, they conceded 50+ points on five occasions and they were nilled four times as well. Their 54-0 loss to Warrington in round 27 consigned them to the bottom of the table, but that was their first nilling in three months as they improved during the second half of the year.
The team also weren’t helped by injuries, as their already-thin squad was massively stretched. First-choice halves pairing James Meadows and Jack Campagnolo only started playing together late on in the year, while the Championship Young Player of the Year in 2023, Bill Leyland, missed the whole campaign with an ACL injury.
At the end of the season, owner David Hughes announced that he was pulling out of the club after 27 years as well. It’s understandable really, as he must have been hemorrhaging money for the vast majority of that time, but his departure leaves the club up the proverbial creek without a paddle.
Reasons to be positive in 2025
At the time of writing this, London’s very existence is under severe threat, so it’s hard to come up with anything right now.
The club only have three players contracted for next year and need to find ยฃ350,000 in the next month or so just to reach the start line for 2025.
One plus has been the amount of publicity generated around the club though, and I have a feeling they’ll still be around. The new IMG gradings haven’t been announced yet as I write this, but the Broncos are expecting to have climbed significantly, and that will have a bearing on whether new investors are attracted to the club.
My 2024 prediction – 12th
Final 2024 position – 12th
No prizes for getting this one right. The Broncos were odds-on favourites to finish bottom and they duly delivered, but to their credit they performed better than I thought they would and a few of their defeats really could have gone either way.
