Jon Wilkin brands IMG system ’embarrassing’ and says ‘the sport is finished’

The IMG grading system has been a point of controversy ever since its announcement but of late it’s become a sore subject one again and one man who has labelled it “embarrassing” is Sky Sports’ Jon Wilkin.

Never one to shy away from an opinion, Jon Wilkin has torn into IMG and the system of grading that will be introduced as part of the marketing agency’s partnership with the RFL. The former St Helens skipper has put forward his views on this week’s Rugby League Veridct live on Sky Sports in which he and Jenna Brooks spoke with London Broncos boss Mike Eccles.

The Broncos are almost guaranteed to be relegated at the end of this season, they could even manage to win the Grand Final but it would likely still be fruitless with the capital’s team looking a certainty to be relegated under the current grading system.

Their shock promotion last year came following success in a gauntlet of playoff games that saw them win on the road against Sheffield Eagles, Featherstone Rovers and Toulouse Olympique. Those celebrations of promotion were quickly cut short when just weeks later the illustrative gradings from IMG were released that announced the Broncos as the 24th-ranked side, condemning them to the Championship for 2025 when gradings officially are put into practice.

London’s coach Mike Eccles referenced the team’s laughable position in the rankings, the Broncos currently the lowest Grade B side in the land, with Eccles pointing out the skewed calculation of the team’s ‘catchment’ scoring as one of the biggest anomalies in the IMG system.

It’s a system that has always garnered controversy but after London’s win over Hull FC this past weekend, it’s become a hot topic again and Jon Wilkin has had his say.

Jon Wilkin claims Super League owners dictate to IMG

It’s a sad fact that it had become almost accepted among rugby league fans and media that London Broncos were hurtling towards relegation based purely on their IMG score, but whilst the club were losing, it was something that could be brushed under the carpet in a sense.

That’s effectively the argument of Jon Wilkin who has spoken on The Rugby League Verdict to condemn the system as he highlighted the ‘elephant in the room’.

Wilkin told Jenna Brooks and London coach Eccles: “This was always the elephant in the room, the fact that London were coming up with the inevitability that they’re going back down.

“It’s fine when London are losing all the games on the field, but if London win a few more games now, and ends up maybe second, third from bottom, it’s going to be a very embarrassing situation in the first year of the grading.”

Incredibly, Wilkin would go further and claim that it isn’t even IMG who are dictating the terms to Super League, but instead the Super League owners who dictate the terms to IMG.

He explained: “I support Rugby League in London, I think it’s an incredible asset for us, but there are 11 men who sit around the table, 11 owners who sit around the table and all have a vote and it’s all very democratic, smoke-filled room, your clandestine sort of meetings where they decide where the game goes.

“We don’t have any say, I don’t have any say, the governing body doesn’t have any say in where the game goes. The 12 owners decide what happens. They wanted to do the grading. So they’ve decided to go down the grading route off the back of what? Recommendations from IMG, who basically got a swanky spreadsheet that you put information in it and that tells you who’s viable and who’s not.”

Wilkin blasts “lack of clarity” in IMG system

That was just the start of the former St Helens captain’s rant at the sport’s new marketing partners as he went in on the grading system for a lack of ‘clarity, flex and transparency’ before warning that in it’s current state, IMG and rugby league will push away valuable investors as opposed to attract them.

“The lack of clarity on the grading system flabbergasts me. The lack of flex in the grading system flabbergasts me. The lack of transparency as well,” Wilkin argued.

“We are fumbling into a situation where we’re going to have very vocal people like David Hughes, who has spent 15 to 20 million quid in the game of rugby league, become alienated by the sport and I refuse to say that that’s a good thing.”

He then once again went in on Hull FC, whom he had already claimed were set to be saved from relegation by IMG, with Wilkin referencing clubs who are “surviving” due to the fact that they know they will be in Super League based on grades. For Wilkin, that means the sport is “finished”.

“We’ve got clubs in our league now who are just surviving, they’re taking the central deal, they’re getting rid of the players, they’re just surviving because they know they’re going to get in and if that’s right, then the sport’s done. It’s finished. It’s just finished.

“If we’re going to allow teams to get rid of players, just survive and then limp in and then we’ve got huge investments from other clubs, where’s the fairness in all of that? It’s not sport.

“We have to be striving to be better, to be bigger, to be stronger, to be more influential, to get more interest in the game. If we’re not trying to do that then we’re just surviving and when you’re doing that it’s just a slow death. So let’s have a crack.”