New Super League signing left questioning new club’s IMG scoring system

Sadiq Adebiyi will be a familiar name for plenty of rugby league fans with the Nigerian international having played across each of Super League, Championship and League One, but he’s now back in his hometown with recently promoted London Broncos.

Adebiyi broke through with the Broncos in 2018 aged 21 and played for them 13 times in the 2019 Super League season, the forward explaining to Serious About Rugby League the pride in representing what he calls his “hometown club”.

“I like to think I played some of my best out of London. I know everyone at the club, it’s like my hometown club,” Adebiyi told Serious About Rugby League.

It had always been his ambition to play Super League, something he’ll now get to do again with the Broncos, and something he’d made the sacrifice of moving away from London to do previously.

“The main reason why I moved up here was to play Super League and that’s when I signed for Wakefield, and now it’s one of them where I can do that at home surrounded by family and friends.

“When the opportunity sort of came about, not just to play in Super League but to represent London in Super League, it was a no brainer for me really.”

That recent move to the Broncos on a two-year deal will see him return to the club that he debuted with, however he’s well aware of the stiff task facing the Broncos now that they’ve returned to Super League. With the current preliminary gradings as recommended by IMG the Broncos will almost certainly be relegated at the end of the 2024 season, something Adebiyi couldn’t believe.

“Yeah, it’s a bit of a shock really,” he told SARL, explaining that: “one of the selling points to coming back to London was obviously the whole IMG stuff. They wanted London to be a big part and everybody thought that as soon as London got to Super League, that’s more or less the stepping stone that they need to start developing and get a couple of years in Super League.

“With the scoring system it’s a bit of a bad one really but at the end of the day, players only sort of control what we can control, and that’s just playing the best we can on the field, really.”

The scoring system in question means that the Broncos have been handed a B Grade, however it’s the lowest among the B graded teams and sees them ranked 24th among Super League, Championship and League One sides. Of course the data that IMG rank from is based on a three-year cycle so when the official grades are released this time next year, their 2021 campaign in which they finished seventh will be replaced with their Super League standing from 2024.

They’ll also benefit of improved TV viewership whilst in Super League but it likely won’t be enough with the Broncos currently over four IMG grading points behind the 12th ranked team in Leigh. Despite that Adebiyi is looking forward to the season and will just plan on taking care of his own business, putting faith in the club off-field.

“It’s going to be a weird one to see what sort of happens back at the end of next year, but hopefully the club would have seen that and sort of rectified the wrongs in order for us to have the best opportunity to stay up,” the 26-year-old told Serious About Rugby League.

Continuing, he noted: “I’m just thinking about next year and then when the year after comes about then I’ll start thinking about that. But I haven’t really thought too much into it to be honest. I’m just worried about next year and playing the best we can in Super League to be honest.”

The response from fans of the game was far stronger with many using London as an example of the system failing and being ridiculous, however the club themselves released a statement in which they explained that the grading will simply make them “look to work together as a club to improve”, maintaining Super League remains the long term aim.

As for Adebiyi, and for many fans of the game who are left questioning the system, he simply stated: “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but as players we just go out there and play the best we can really.”

The 26-year-old will be an important member of an exciting Broncos side in 2024, a team that will likely have the support of the neutral as they battle to keep their place in Super League and few will fight more than the proud Londoner himself.