Unfortunately the game is ill served in the media. I agree with Mugwump above. If Robbie Paul and Jon Wilkin are the best the BBC can come up with then heaven help us. The SL Show is cringeable. When poor Matty Smith is on I dive for cover. I really like Matty. He obviously a good bloke, but he has absolutely NOTHING of interest to say. The person I feel most sorry for is Tanya Arnold, who is a brilliant presenter, she must yearn for someone to say something, anything!!

Also the argument that intelligent people are the best pundits is disproved by Phil Clarke every week. Clearly a thoughtful man who is also handsome (so my wife says). He is obsessed with 'sounding' intelliegent. And really- is it necessary to call people by their full name ("Matthew Smith has kicked more 40/20s than anyone except Daniel Brough!!"icon_wink.gif? There is a role for his stats, but try to use them to explain. For example why the obsession with completing sets? Explain why it is important, especially when you have just watched 5 drives and an aimless kick.

Stevo is beyond parody. I must say I quite like Barrie McDermott, who can articulate his thoughts with a bit of humour, and perhaps just needs to relax a bit. Sky would do well to have LESS people on their shows. Give people room to give their views instead of having to fight for air time.

The problem Barrie Mac has is that Sky seem to think he can only work as part of a double act with Terry O'Connor, who has the charm, eloquence and ability for rational, engaging thought of a B&Q side table.

Matt Gidley did his MBA while still playing, and bought his first business with virtually his first paycheck.

When his career was over he started a trainee position at the Newcastle Knights and after 2 years he became a glorified football manager under Nathan Tinkler's rule. He had the title of CEO, but all major business decisions were out of his hands.
At the end of the Tinkler era he was appointed CEO, but again he doesn't have full powers because the club is under administration of the NRL.
But anyway, he has virtually gone from player to CEO, and is fully qualified for the position. In his first few years of being CEO he was doing training sessions with the players, and outdoing some of them.

I'm a little more sympathetic toward Phil Clarke than maybe I should be. I do think he's been incredibly influential in SKY's attempts to modernise its analysis component - even if such change has been at a glacial pace.

Perhaps more than any other presenter he intuitively understands the limits of what can be said and what cannot.

We can agree or disagree on what he says. But he's very professional, works hard at his image and is generally respected.

I get a particular kick out of the patented "Phil Clarke Sidelong Glance" (always delivered with that little twinkle in his eye).

And I can't forget arguably the single funniest gag ever pulled on SKY which was the night at Castleford when he donned that outrageous wig. Seriously, my sides felt like they'd been worked over with a baseball bat the next day. I've never laughed so much during a match in my life.

I wish I could source a copy of that broadcast. I've tried repeatedly to root out a clip on YouTube but it seems no one was recording that night.

Pity.

Motu Tony is another who has gone from player to management. He studied business when he retired and is now Hull FC general manager.

Young guy playing reserve grade at the Newcastle Knights will probably be a big wig someday.

Lachlan Fitzgibbon is a 21 year old who is in his 3rd year at Uni.

His father, Mark Fitzgibbon, is CEO of NIB Insurance, a top 150 company in Australia and major sponsor of the Newcastle Knights. Mark is seen as a rising star of Australian business.

His uncle, Joel Fitzgibbon, is a Labor member of federal parliament and was defence minister and then government whip in the last Labor government. He was also a handy League player when young, playing for the Cessnock Goannas.

Lachlan is a very good, big, barnstorming second rower who will probably play firstgrade next year, if he doesn't decide he can make more money in business.

The Aussies are just light years ahead of us in picking out interesting characters for TV. Matthew Johns was a great example until everything kind of turned sour. Beau Ryan is another example of an archetype which is completely alien to SKY TV. As for the Beeb - it's so sour-faced and serious you kind of wonder whether anyone there possesses a sense of humour.

I mean, Barrie and Terry take a stab at the task in their own amateur-night way. But you just can't compare either with Johns or Beau Ryan.

Crabtree for a start. He's awful.

He's the worst of the bunch, god he comes across as a right bumpkin. I feel embarrassed every time he's on...gives the people who stereo type our game proper fuel for the fire.

I thought the BBC coverage of the cup games so far was great. Discussed the games and issues with professionalism and with some humour.

Sky, with the exception of Wells & Carney (and the odd bit from Clarke when he's actually thinking), is really bad. Eddie would be fine if he just stuck to commentary, but he doesn't. Stevo's time as a commentator has been and gone, he adds nothing but confusion (is better talking about the game in general like on Backchat). Barrie occasionally has a decent comment but is still too obsessed with being a prop and shouting things like "shot!" when there's been a good hit.
Terry is terrible. Utterly awful. Can't speak well enough for TV. Doesn't add anything anyone didn't already know but says it in a voice as though it's the most wonderful thing he's ever seen in his life. A random cliche generator.

I actually like all the people on Sky. They're all die hard RL fans and love the sport and just want the best for it. But some their time has come, others should never have been on so regularly in the first place.

The BBC's live coverage is far better than Sky's in my opinion. Partly because of the better people on it and partly because there is fewer of them and they aren't talking over the top of each other, bickering etc.

However the SL show is in stark contrast to the BBC's live coverage. The SL show is incredibly dull and boring. For some reason they're insistent on having current players or coaches on. Which means you only ever get neutral answers from them as they don't want to upset rivals.
There's no analysis of any of the games. Just a few standard "team who won played well" & "team who lost struggled" comments.
I'm a pretty die-hard RL fan and I struggle to watch it most weeks due to the utterly boring nature of it.

We don't actually need the current players to be THAT media savvy/friendly just enough to get through post match interviews.
What we need are ex-players and coaches to be used.

I would like to see JJB on a commentary team after he's finished playing.

Good use of sarcasm, I hope

JJB's accent is so thick, and his slurring of words so grotesque,, that he makes Peacock seem intelligible.

I'm not sure what's funnier, complaining about "very broad parochial accents" yet then listing a dozen AUSSIES as examples of .. what -not broad parochial accents?? Arrr, strewth, moaite. Or highlighting a "chartered accountant" as if that was bizarrely some indicator of interestingness. Have you ever met one?