Anyone ever noticed the bad language for which Eddie feels the need to apologise? He mentions it every f***ing game.

Remember the reaction of the sky team when LMS said the F word in an interview after the 2014 GF? They couldn't apologise to the viewers quick enough, who probably didn't even care, and if they did, who cares?!

I think the problem is not just that the commentators are bad, but that theyre always the same which, to any regular viewers, quickly becomes tiresome and repetitive.

I have watched a lot of NRL recently, they have a different commentator every match, with a couple of different legends joining them.

Also part of the problem is that the Aussies legends are so much more charismatic and media trained than our ex pros!

British rugby league players can barely string a sentence together, they even take the out of them in Aus and I think Aussies are thick as a general population n’all!

Even a media savvy person like Brian Noble doesn’t understand that adverbs end in ‘ly’, watching Eorl Crabtree try and be woodenly articulate is painful because the words that come out are well off making sense at times, Terry O’C - no, just no!

Oh for a Keith Macklin, his soothing articulate unhurried commentary was easy on the ear.

All it sounds like now is ee, that wor reet smashing, it just has whippets and flat cap written all over it which isn't friendly on the ear, in fact repulsive. The inability to describe the action in anything but lazy repetitive, oft totally incorrect terms outs it for the absolute carp that it is.
Employing ex-players who might well have a grasp of the rudimentary elements but are simply incapable of using language to convey the event and summary in an appealing way which isn't doing the viewer nor the sport as a whole any favours, it's yet another aspect that is holding RL back.

Alternatively, Phil Clark, who does his absolute best to appear articulate and intelligent, but runs out of words part way through many of his tortured points and just tails off into garbled nonsense.

I know the feeling well. There's even a name for it but I'm buggered if i can remember it. Anaphasia google tells me.

And at this point Tez'll feel qualified to add a comment or two.

Tez is painful to listen to and trots out the same garbage week after week. Clark is a pseudo intellectual and believes he is talking sense, but we know differently. Barry I can cope with as he usually offers something worth listening to.

Look at the difference between the lot on Sky and then someone like Mick Ennis on Fox. He's only been doing the media gig for just over a season, and he looks and sounds like an absolute pro - he calls the game action, he gives insight into the tactics that are being used, gives an opinion, and isn't afraid to be honest about how teams/players are playing, all well presented, understandable and sounding well educated - our lot are abysmal in comparison.

Bill Arthur is absolutely shocking as a commentator, has referred to Luke Briscoe as Luke Burgess all night Tonight. Gets players names wrong at least once a set and clearly has no understanding of the game.

I think finally something might be done about it since every man and his dog were on social media complaining about it.

Powers interviewing Jake Connor " you got your next win and your on your way to Wembley again"

Christ she is so bad she makes "set a six" sound like a genius.

Yep heard that one

In rare praise of the sky commentary team, I thought it was 100% better with Brian Carney in the commentary box last night. I've always thought he's a bit wooden as a presenter, but excellent when talking about the game.

It was good to hear a voice that won't simply tow the line. He's the only one on the sky team that isn't afraid to be critical, I found myself pleasantly surprised to hear him call out the level of gamesmanship (or cheating as it used to be called) in the sport at present. On the rare occasions he does commentate, he's not afraid to critcise the skill or product where justified.

It's so frustrating that they have articulate, knowledgable pundits like him and Tony Rea on their books that they never use. Instead we have to put up with O Connor, who seemingly thinks that every player and match no matter how average or mundane is magnificent and McDermott, who can't make a point in less than 60 seconds or refrain from explaining the same thing but in three different ways, usually leading to him trailing off or getting tongue-tied.