18 January 2014

2014 Preview - London Broncos

Whilst most teams were finalising preseason trial games, London only just sorted grounds to play and train at. With the short term future at least seeming secured with the Barnet deal, London can now look to build a team with likely British based loan signings and available players from back end of squads down under joining the growing regional talent group. 

Young former Melbourne Storm junior Denny Solomona was the first new player announced, although the news came out of the Australian outfit rather than the Broncos themselves, who are yet to confirm. Back row George Griffin from Hull KR was the first new face to be confirmed by the club at the start of a week of newd. Scott Moore is back in Super League after an ultimately unsuccessful stint at North Queensland Cowboys to provide some experience but not exactly a wonderful track record off the field. 20 year old Tongan full back Nesiasi Mataitonga is the other signing, along with a number of loan players.

These signings join Olsi Krasniqi, Matt Cook, Kieran Dixon, Will Lovell, Mike McMeeken, Erjon Dollapi, James Woodburn-Hall, Mike Bishay, Mason Caton-Brown, Joel Wicks, Saeed Agboke and Iliess Macani, all retained from last season.

19 players at 20.50 years old with on average 26 senior club games. Only Matt Cook and Scott Moore are over 21 and played 100 first grade games. Aussie prop Ben Ross might have added much needed experience but, in a bizarre turnaround, he tweeted he was staying in Aus to follow his passion for community welfare, only hours after the Broncos announced his signing.

Bringing in numbers is important, but in that it is probably crucial that there is some experience. Experienced players are often hard to come by in the loan market, so they will have to find players that sides are keen to offload. Obviously they might look at other cash strapped clubs like Bradford and Wakefield for potential signings, or fringe players at other clubs, if they can't satisfy their needs in the loan market.
 
2013 Young Player of the Year nominee Dixon is the most obvious player to pick out from the group left on the books from the 2013 side. His attacking stats compared very favourably to those of the wingers at last year's top four clubs, scoring more tries, making more breaks and more metres with a better average gain than the average top four winger. He scored over a quarter of Broncos tries, was responsible for 10% of the metres made and 20% of their breaks in the 22 games he played. Also, they didn't win any of the five games he missed, which underlines how crucial he is.

Caton-Brown could be a young player to emerge this season. He only made two appearances last year, the last two games of the season. The Broncos won both, he scored four tries and made 250 metres. Another is dual-code winger Saeed Agboke who looked powerful and very quick in the under 19s last year.

With this preparation its clearly going to be a rough year in London. Hopefully they can at least play tough and win some home games to try and encourage home support to grow and foundations for a future are solidified, whatever level the club will exist at for 2015 and beyond.
 
League Leaders Odds: 1000/1
Grand Final Odds: 500/1
Cup Odds: 125/1
(source: Oddschecker.com)

Mark's predictions:
League place - 14th
Key man - Kieran Dixon
One to watch -
Nesiasi Mataitonga

Tom's predictions:
League place - 14th
Key man - Kieran Dixon
One to watch - Mason Caton-Brown

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