Rugby League: Broncos take telling decision to bring in novice for Offi ah

The London Broncos have their reasons to be philosophical about the disappearance of Martin Offiah from their side for the rest of this summer.

For one thing, he will be back next year. For another, they clearly do not believe that he will be missed too badly in the meantime.

Offiah is replaced in the Broncos side to face Canterbury in the World Club Championship tomorrow night by his lodger, Wes Cotton, who has played in the Academy and Alliance teams at Wigan but has a career as a male model that is rather more flourishing.

That is a bizarre piece of serendipity, but the fact that London can replace Offiah with a novice shows what a peripheral figure he is becoming at The Stoop. If a youngster on a fraction of his money can do an equivalent job, it would be surprising if London were desperate to extend his stay with them.

It is not that Offiah has suddenly become a bad player - indeed his defence and reading of a game have improved steadily - but he is no longer a match- winner. If his rumoured payments of pounds 5,000 a match are accurate, he is simply not worth it to the Broncos.

There were few in rugby league, however, who appreciated the extent to which he has been merely on loan to the game.

The deal that brought him from Wigan a year ago was represented as a joint venture between the Broncos and Bedford. What this week's events have shown is that he is essentially a Bedford player who is released to London for 12 matches a year.

In fact, he has played 13, but London were not prepared to offer him anything other than the prospect of winning bonuses for playing any more. According to his agent, Alan McColm, even that unattractive proposal was effectively withdrawn before Offiah had a chance to consider it.

"Martin is disappointed in the extreme," McColm said. "It is not as though he hasn't done everything that they have required of him. He's played, he's scored and he has mixed in with his team-mates with great enthusiasm, which hasn't always been the case in the past."

For all that, the Broncos, who have so many big matches coming up over the next few months, clearly believe that they can manage without him.

"The Broncos don't seem to act with any speed or logical thought," said McColm, who is also locked in negotiation with the club over the future of another of his clients, their coach, Tony Currie.

"They have made him an offer for next season that is not acceptable," McColm said. "We have submitted a counter-proposal."

After the decision to let Offiah go, the next question is how keen London are to retain the coach who has taken them to the top bracket of Super League and, barring unthinkable catastrophes, the quarter-finals of the WCC. Letting him go, the record suggests, would be a real loss.