The Broncos are announcing the creation of a new team within the club. The Grangemouth Colts will take to the field in the 2018 British American Flag Association Senior Flag League.
The timing of this announcement is ideal for the Grangemouth club. In 2018 the existing Broncos team will be playing in the newly created Premier League against the other teams who attended the Northern Regional Finals at the beginning of August. The Premier Conference North will comprise of the three teams from the top of each HNC conferences and their respective runners up, plus the same set of teams from the MEC (North of England). A 12 team league, playing a 16 game season. The SEC and SWC from the South-East and South-West of the UK will form the Premier Conference South. The top two teams from the North will play the top two teams from the South in the National Finals at the end of the season.
With the Broncos playing at a higher level, some of the players who saw limited game time in 2017 are likely to see even less playing time.
That is where the Grangemouth Colts will come in.
The Colts will play in the existing leagues against the teams who didn’t make the play-offs this year. With so many experienced players on the current Broncos roster, there will be a great deal of expectation placed on the shoulders of the new team.
Club Chairman Jimmy Thomson said, “This is an exciting time for the club. Our Broncos team has moved to a level where the games will challenge them on a more regular basis. That can only be good for our club.”
“The creation of the Colts team lets us develop our back-up players. They will get more meaningful game time in competitive matches, allowing them to progress and eventually push for places in the Premier Conference.”
“There is a little nervousness at the club, because with any new venture there is some amount of risk. Two years ago we were in the same situation, but when it came to the final step of creating the second team many of the players drifted off. This time, we feel we have the commitment to make it work.”
As a consequence 
of the changes the club will now be known as the Grangemouth Flag Football Club. Within the club, the two teams will have their own identities as the Grangemouth Broncos and Grangemouth Colts. Both teams will share the same set of coaches, though some coaches will have specific duties for one of the two teams. We will continue to share the training sessions, though some time will be set aside for Broncos/Colts specific development.
The public face of the Club is changing. The existing “Grangemouth Broncos Flag Football Club” on Facebook has become “Grangemouth Broncos Flag Football”, so people who have already “Liked” that page will continue to see news on the Broncos team. Plus the history will always be there. A new page has been created for the Grangemouth Colts Flag Football which will deliver news on the Colts. And, a new page has been created, Grangemouth Flag Football Club, where we will post club news. The Club’s web site, http://www.grangemouthbroncos.com is likely to change in the coming weeks and will carry news on both the Broncos and Colts.
Grangemouth Broncos senior team have been operating since 2000 as the only adult Flag Football team in the Grangemouth area. Over the past few seasons the team has had a registered membership around the 20 player mark.
In terms of fixtures, it has made the club much more stable. With that many players, there should be no need to cancel fixtures because of lack of numbers.
Assuming the club have the commitment of the players, splitting the team into two squads should not create any issues.
David Mooney, the Broncos Head Coach, admitted, “We now have to work very hard to build two teams that will compete in their current levels. As we decide on which players play in which teams we will be taking account of personal preferences. However, there may be some hard decisions to be made. Many of the players will have a good idea of which team they would like to be in, but the coaches may have other ideas.”
As a consequence of creating the second team, the Broncos are planning a number of recruitment sessions. They will be taking their training sessions to a few different venues around the Falkirk, Clackmannan and Cumbernauld areas. More details will be announced in the next few weeks.