Agree about Eorl. In fact I have given up with Sky. Turn down the sound on the telly and use the radio instead.

Carney Wells and Cummins are spot on.

Eddie is very annoying and Stevo - a great rugby league man as he is - is too old school and as a pair they make RL seem amateurish with the stuff they come out with. I used to think this was a pro-rugbyunion ploy by Sky to make the sport seem like that on purpose but since they never really put up a fight to keep union on Sky I don't think that's what it is, I just think it's poor management/production. Their (what they think is humorous) prattle between each other is terrible! They used to be great in the 90s and 00s but their time is up now.

Clark thinks he works for Wigan TV. He links everything back to a postitive about Wigan, no matter who is playing. One game a few years ago, pre-game, in a game Wigan weren't playing in, he showed clips of Wigan scoring against both sides in action that night as his pre-match build up to show how each side could score against each other. No positives about either side on show that night, just negatives and linking it back to positives about Wigan. But he does this with everything, even little comments he makes have Wigan based undertows.

Barrie is okay but tries to be funny with the same kind of humour Eddie and Stevo do, Terry is too unintelligent (might be a great guy, just not for the tele) and doesn't provide enough insight.

Rod Studd should never be allowed to express an opinion!

It needs a shake up. Get Carney as the presenter on all shows. Bring in guest pundits each week, there are hordes of ex-RL players out there. Then have John Wells, Tony Rea plus the guest in the studio with Brian. Then bust a gut to get Andrew Voss as commentator with Cummins and maybe someone new in the gantry with those two.

And I wish Sky would stop showing replays of things that have just happened literally five seconds before - that we all saw - while play is going on. Or worse, shots of the coach or random people in the crowd with teeth missing (they always seem to pick out the village idiot, as if to say to the masses "this is your archetypal RL fan everyone"!), while play is going on.

I'd actually never thought of that until I read your post. You're spot on. There needs to be a more technical analysis of PLAY to the commentary, doesn't there. Good point.

It does sadden me that Stevo has become such an embarrassment, given everything that he's given to the sport. But he has. He's a caricature of himself now, and I'm actually embarrassed for him a lot of the time. His commentary is virtually all catchphrase with very little content, and along with Eddie he is intent on focusing most of his attention on negatives (errors, refereeing decisions, infringements) when they really should be talking the game up.

Phil Clarke is a terrible, terrible thing for broadcasting. For a long time he was partisan, but basically OK. Then, for reasons which no rational human can explain, he decided to reinvent himself as some kind of professor of rugby. His existence now revolves around shabby interpretation of inadequate numerical data. Best example being his "key performance indicators" which helpfully tell us that the team that does best on metres, clean breaks, missed tackles etc, more often than not wins the game. Amazing what you can do now with technology isn't it?

I like Carney and Wells. Tony Rea is always good value, and I don't mind John Kear for a bit as a guest.

On the radio, Eorl Crabtree is always very good. Is Jason Demitriou still around? He used to do decent punditry on West Yorkshire Sport as well.

A 'good professor' (like Koukash) or a 'bad one'..?

Incidentally, I have no understanding of those KPI graphics - was there an explanation when they were first used on what they actually meant? If so, I missed it. I assume green means 'better', yellow means 'even' and red means 'worse' but other than that, they have never meant anything.

There is no explanation how they decide that 'green, yellow, green' = '36 point margain' whereas 'red, green, yellow' = 'half a pint of shandy'. The whole thing means nothing!

But yes, it generally only illuminates us to the fact that the team who are winning 'should' be winning. Hmm...

Or are the traffic light things not the KPI's and you are on about something else..?

This is the draw-back of not having Sky and tending only to see Rugby live (or the odd CC game on Beeb).