Whoever takes over at the RFL must surely sack off Sky when the current deal ends.

First match of the season and the stale, dumbed down presentation lingers on. The tired old 'robot intro', inane Terry ...

First set of the season and there was ZERO commentary on the play. Eddie interrupted by Terry before the first tackle, then Baz having to have his say (all the while ignoring the actual play). Compare this to the first NRL match when it is on.

After 5 minutes the TV sound was switched off (for the season) and the Proper Sport radio commentary put on instead. Miles better (even with the pictures being half a second behind the commentary).

Same here.....watching it with no sound is better than the SKY commentary

That's been my modus operandi for the last two seasons, it works well for me.

I realise it shouldn't be like that, but what else can you do, jeez, people will be getting dewy-eyed about Stevo soon.

Do SKY still do that fan commentary thing for the soccer? That'd be fun for SL....

The robot titles and dreadful music must have been in place for 7 years!!

It epitomises the care Sky has in the production.

I got no problem with you being unhappy with sky commentary but your point about whoever takes over @ the RFL must sack of sky can't be serious.

I am pretty sure you know how TV broadcast deals work. Sack off sky is a laughable comment. Where do you think super league coverage is gonna end up?

Do you seriously believe BBC will pay anywhere near what sky currently pay? Time for a reality check. The BBC won't be anywhere near in the running when the next TV deal goes to tender. Same with premier sports!

The only channel that might be interested is BT Sport.

Let's hope they do, because they will be keen to offer some games to FTA like they have with the other code

Keep Wells and Carney, the rest have had their day.

I noticed the try/ no try 'thing' has changed on the big screen. Maybe thats this years innovation!

I'm not too bothered about it overall. I do get a bit annoyed with Eddie who half the time doesn't know the rules and can't make the effort to correctly pronounce straight forward English names like JohnsTone instead of his perceived view that it is Johnson.

Phil Clarke is a bit of a tool and provided comedy value early on last night when he thought the 20 metre restart should have been a drop out.

Too be honest though, half of the time I just tune out of listening and just watch the match. Hearing the crowd makes some atmosphere for watching.

It's never been the same since they ditched Try Track.

Having a look at your TV's sound settings is one avenue. I managed to enhance the background noise ie - the crowd and reduce the speech tone ie - commentary. As a result the main commentator is slightly muffled and you can barely hear the co-commentators as the crowd noise takes over.

A lot better.

Joking apart the whole presentation still has that lingering stale 90's feel to it. It could do with a clear the decks and start again from commentary team to the graphics, music the lot but i don't think SKY care so much to do such a thing. I agree with those who decide to turn off the volume, only so much of the Baz and Tez act i can take and the pointless Cummins chiming in is nauseating.

Didn't take long for the moaning about the commentary My personal opinion is, Eddie is a very good commentator. He brings excitement to his commentary. The problem is they are too many people on the gantry with him, so it ineviably turns into a discussion. Eddie on his own with one of Barrie/Brian would be fine IMO Regarding the robots, i mean how lazy can sky be? I wouldn't mind kf it was 8 years of one of the decent intros we've had in the years, but tje robots were naff from day one. Bring one these beauties back https://youtu.be/3BYcjtn16j8 https://youtu.be/pNoSujSnt8A https://youtu.be/uyhEpQaonuM https://youtu.be/Qh9ftkE_UdU https://youtu.be/aXV4biKLRr0

Didn't take long for the moaning about the commentary My personal opinion is, Eddie is a very good commentator. He brings excitement to his commentary. The problem is they are too many people on the gantry with him, so it ineviably turns into a discussion. Eddie on his own with one of Barrie/Brian would be fine IMO Regarding the robots, i mean how lazy can sky be? I wouldn't mind kf it was 8 years of one of the decent intros we've had in the years, but tje robots were naff from day one. Bring one these beauties back https://youtu.be/3BYcjtn16j8 https://youtu.be/pNoSujSnt8A https://youtu.be/uyhEpQaonuM https://youtu.be/Qh9ftkE_UdU https://youtu.be/aXV4biKLRr0

I agree 100%. Eddie is a commentator, not a pundit. He's never played the game at any level that I'm aware of so his opinion isn't required. Leave that to the so called experts - of which I agree there are too many.

Having Cummings in the team just gives far too much attention to refereeing decisions. It's super boring and detracts from the game.

Baz and Terry are a waste of time. We need someone that can talk about the game as convincingly as Fittler and Johns do on the NRL coverage.

Stick to Eddie plus one only in the box with one touchline reporter and that's it.

I do not care who is the commentator has long has the rugby is good that’s all that matters

Do you do that deliberately? I can't make my mind up.

#bringbackthemarginmeter

Bugger, beat me to it!!!

It’s all wrong and has been for years.

It’s too late to change Eddie. He’s forgotten he’s a commentator and just seems to be there to stoke controversy and give us his non-expert opinion. He’s been involved in the sport for over a quarter of a century yet he still acts as if every rule is brand new to him. He’s also obsessed with sticking the word “the” in front of everything. “The Leeds Rhinos”, not simply “Leeds” or “Leeds Rhinos”, “The English”, “The Catalans”, “The Saints”, “The xxx club” as in “The Warrington club” or “the Wigan club” instead of just simply saying “Warrington” and “Wigan”.

Barrie and Terry bring nothing to the table apart from a typical thick Northerner stereotype.

Phil Clark only pipes up when he’s being pro-Wigan or positive about a player who’s signed up to his Brother’s agency.

Wells gets everyone’s names wrong and is too loud and speaks too quickly but he’s better than the others.

Cummins is a clueless hasbeen ref who makes a fool of himself and the sport with his continual incorrect ramblings.

Carney is good and is actually better on the Gaelic footy when he’s not surrounded by Bafoons.

The whole thing needs a shake up, a clean slate and just give Carney the presenter gig and bring in a whole new team of one commentator and one co-commentator, one pitchside reporter and then have different people in the studio each week including coaches and captains of other teams who aren’t playing that night to bring some up to date and intelligent/insightful talk to the panel for once. Maybe keep Wells in the studio instead of sticking him on his own outside so he doesn’t think he has to shout.

But Sky don’t give a really. As has been proved in all the programming we’ve lost over the years and the money they [don’t put into the game.

"The Black and Whites"



I've said this before but how unprofessional does it sound if the lead commentator doesn't know (or pretends to not know) the rules just to accommodate a former referee?

Be thankful, without them there would be no live rugby league on tv - as annoying as they are.

Eddie has been a great commentator but his time is up, last night during the two biggest moments of the game, Ryan Hall's try and Atkins' miss, he was rambling about something else both times and almost missed the action.

Do we even need to criticise Barrie and Terry any more? I wouldn't mind if they at least brought enthusiasm but they don't even do that. O'Connor is the worst colour commentator I have ever heard in any sport.

The biggest problem is the number of voices in a game. Just have a simple two man team with the odd comment from a studio guest. That's why we end up with this "banter" because there's so many guys there. You don't need 5/6/7 voices in one game all fighting to get a word in.

BBC paid £300M for the 6 nations rugby union over 6 years, that doesn't even give them all of the Scotland/Wales games and only one, maybe two of the England games.
£200M over 5 years for a full seasons SL is a huge difference in value.
Free to air BBC can get over 4 million for a prime time Saturday afternoon England RU game but that's only once a year, maybe twice (I'm not sure how the deal worked as to which year gets what) but the overall exposure/filling a slot on TV works out massively cheaper for the BBC to take on RL instead of union, plus it'd get rid of s like Inverdale, Butler and all the rest of the union noddies/hangers on that fawn over yet another 37 minutes of drudgery filled carp with 32 'phases' of fat lads falling over burning up the last 5 minutes of a match.