Never mind 8 pages, there have been at least 8 topics posted about Stevo since the season started. It's becoming something of an RLFans tradition to denigrate the man every weekend...

Andrew Voss is subject to a massive rlfans love in, but had Stevo spent all the World Cup banging on about what he had eaten that day everyone would say it was proof that he is a joke.

I'd give it about 12 months before Voss wound me up in the same way Stevo does, just in an Australian accent.

Were you crying when you typed this post out?

When he retires he will be off our screens anyway, because he will have gone back "home" to Australia.

I just think we prefer the Aussie accent rather than the northern one gives the opinions more gravitas or maybe we are just unfairly comparing everyone to Rab Warren.

Great reply, don't know how I can argue with that.

listening to Vossy for the last two years on premier sports is really good IMO. he dosent just talk about what he had to eat in a local pub eg: the three pigeons he does offer a really good opinion of the game and more importantly he is up to date with the modern game.

Ok let's take the ardent RL fans out of the debate (seen as you can't understand our opinion).

How useful do you think the Sky team (I'm being careful not to single out Stevo as it's a bigger problem than just him - although he clearly plays a big part in the sky team) are at commentating and explaining the action for the blind audience, or the casual viewers who need more of an explanation of what's happening and why?

Clarky actually dumbs down the game all the time e.g when someone kicks a 40/20 he says " that means a player has kicked...." Etc etc then find myself thinking "shut up you patronising to$$er"

I find that Sky RL provide the most informative and varied commentary of any sports broadcasts I see, and I include soccer in that. They provide a mixture of discussion of tougher issues, as well as explaining things for the new viewers (as the poster above says, though he seems to consider it 'patronising'???)

Serious question Jon - Do you work for Sky? Or have a personal allegiance to somebody that does?

In my experience, you are very much in the minority with that opinion. The actual in-game commentary is absolute minimal, with very little description of what is happening, and much more of the subjective opinions of the crew.

I keep harping on about the blind, as the blind rely solely on the commentary aspect of the coverage to understand what is happening, and I know from my involvement with certain organisations, the sky commentary of rugby league is not highly rated by the blind audience.

I'm all for having balance, and a mixture of commentary, opinion and even a touch of sensationalism are needed, unfortunately the Sky team at the moment focus mainly on the opinions far too heavily and this has a negative impact on the coverage for most viewers.

All commentators need to show their personality, but this shouldn't be at the expense of being descriptive of what they are seeing - the viewers tune in for the sporting occasion and the drama that brings, not to hear the opinions and pseudo arguments of the 'commentators'.

I have to say, whenever i speak to a new fan, floating fan, or not-really a fan of the game, they are almost universally positive about Stevo and they find his enthusiasm infectious and his excitement brings them into the game.

Im ot a huge fan of Eddie, i think he and stevo together doesnt really work the 'banter' is sometimes a little cringeworthy,

but i like stevo, i think if directed to be a bit more positive, and with a new play-caller he would be a lot better, but i do think he is a good colourman.

The annoying traits of individual commentators on Sky are far outweighed by the far superior overall broadcast they deliver IMHO. They're still light years ahead of the BBC, who manage somehow to still make exciting games appear dull because of their unexcited commentary and terrible sound mixing (a problem they don't seem to have when broadcasting 6 Nations matches I've noticed).

It's noticeable that Sky go out of their way to try and present the games in the best possible light. My only real issue is their obsession with refs which at time overshadows the skill from the players.

If people are that bothered why don't you mute the commentary and have your local BBC Radio commentary on your stereo instead? Or you could just keep moaning about it on a message board in the hope that Sky realise they would increase their audience by MILLIONS overnight if they just sacked Stevo...

I think that is probably the crux of the matter - there needs to be a new play-caller, and Stevo just needs to be wound in a little.



That's not really the solution is it - particularly when people pay alot of money for sky.

I remember watching the first few episodes of BackChat and I thought Stevo was ok on there and trying to make good points but then Rod Studd (who is head and shoulders the worst person involved in RL programming and I worry that he might get the gig of taking over Eddie one day) started to wind him up to get 'Stevo the character' out and it worked. That's the problem, those around him spend their time trying to give us 'Stevo', let him be Mike Stephenson and he can still be a good commentator.