“It meant we would get relegated out of Super League before it even started, so we started the season knowing it was an eight-month adventure,” he said.<\/p>\n
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London Broncos fan Gavin Willacy is a sportswriter. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
It was another setback for Willacy, who had already witnessed multiple demotions, failed ownerships, player departures and financial shortfalls in his 25 years as a fan.<\/p>\n
But now he’s feeling hopeful.<\/p>\n
In September Brisbane Broncos icon Darren Lockyer and his business partner Grant Wechsel bought a 90 per cent stake in the London Broncos.<\/p>\n
They hope to haul the capital’s team out of the second-tier Championship competition and back to the Super League.<\/p>\n
The plan has shades of actor Ryan Reynolds’s fairy-tale promotion run with Welsh soccer club Wrexham FC<\/a> \u2014 except Lockyer’s venture includes Papua New Guinea national coach Jason Demetriou and several PNG representative players who’ve been recruited to lift the club out of obscurity.<\/p>\n Playing in the shadows<\/p>\n Gavin Willacy is a sportswriter by trade and has watched more than a few sports falter in a London market ruled by professional soccer.<\/p>\n Gavin Willacy wears his London Broncos jersey. (Supplied)<\/p>\n Yet it’s always seduced rugby league powerbrokers, with Brisbane Broncos founder Barry Maranta and billionaire Richard Branson among past owners who’ve attempted to buy the Broncos a place in the city’s sporting consciousness.<\/p>\n None succeeded.<\/p>\n “If you were to substitute professional soccer with what Melbourne has with the AFL, that’s how tough it is,” Willacy said.<\/p>\n Despite the cultural challenges, the Broncos still managed 19 years in the Super League between 1996 and 2015 before being relegated after eight straight bottom four finishes.<\/p>\n They clawed their way back up in 2019 and again in 2023, but both times fell back down.<\/p>\n “People don’t realise what a tiny operation the club has been,” Willacy said.<\/p>\n “The infrastructure is smaller than a Queensland Cup team and the crowd base has shrunk to three figures.”<\/p>\n Enter Darren Lockyer<\/p>\n Like the owners who came before him, Lockyer was enticed by the potential of the London market \u2014 not to mention the Broncos name he’s synonymous with.<\/p>\n Lockyer and his business partner Grant Wechsel have a 90 per cent stake in the London Broncos. (Instagram: Darren Lockyer)<\/p>\n Lockyer also took inspiration from American actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac turning Wrexham FC into a household name<\/a> after purchasing the club 2020.<\/p>\n He mightn’t have the same global reach as the actors, but his purchase comes with an advantage Wrexham didn’t have \u2014 a 9,300 seat stadium in the heart of Wimbledon, shared with the AFC Wimbledon soccer club.<\/p>\n Plough Lane stadium as London Broncos players warm up. (Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n Meanwhile Lockyer’s NRL connections allowed him to hire Demetriou, who in turn has recruited a slew of PNG players who played under him in the Pacific Championship last month.<\/p>\n “Jason has worked with these guys, got to know them and he’s worked in Super League as a player and coach, so he knows what’s required,” Lockyer told the ABC.<\/p>\n Of the PNG players recruited, virtually all played for the PNG Hunters, the country’s professional team, in the Queensland Cup last year.<\/p>\n Two others, including former NRL player Nene MacDonald, are expected to sign in the coming days.<\/p>\n Nene MacDonald\u00a0celebrates after scoring for Papua New Guinea. (NRL.com)<\/p>\n If they succeed, there’s a lot to be gained.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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