Quote: moving on... "The commentary is pants. Eddie would be a decent commentator if he knew how to commentate.
Instead of"Hill, drives the ball in and finds the floor quick, 2 tackles to go. Clark points left, dummies Akualoa and drops the ball off to Westwood. Westwood pumps the legs and is brought to ground 10 metres out and 10 metres to the right of the sticks. Clark with a quick pick up and he's off! Heading under the sticks there's cover from Cas coming in to wrap him up but he flicks the ball back and Patton is in!" [/i
What we get isEddie [iHill, drives the ball in and finds the floor quick, was that a knock on? Referee says no. 2 tackles to go. Clark, not sure what he wants but takes the ball and drops the ball off to Westwood. They need to be more clinical than that to get past this Cas side...[/i
Terry [iDoesn't Westwood do ever so well. Big drive with the legs from Super league's oldest player.[/i
Eddie [iYes the evergreen Ben Westwood. What he'd do for 2 points against a Cas side like this. Clark picks up but there's nothing on though so he simply has to puts his head down and drive towards the sticks. He finds a gap though and could be through! There's cover from Cas coming in to wrap him up though.[/i
Terry [iSuper scramble defence there from Cas. That's why they are where they are in the table.[/i
Eddie [iOH!! the Ball has come loose! The ball is picked up by Patton who dives over the line and grounds it! There's a question mark here surely about how that ball comes free, isn't there Stuart?[/i
Stuart [iYes well as you can see the ball is clearly lost. Clark's arm loses control of the ball and bounces forward. It's not been picked up by the Referee this time and Warrington should be 6 points better off if he makes the kick.[/i
Terry [iWhy don't we talk about the drive from the big man Westwood, keeps those legs pumping and gets a big win for Clark to jump out there.[/i
Eddie [iTerry as you know the Chairman of the prop forwards union... Yes but all of that should be irrelevant Terry. If the Referee had picked up on the clear knock on, you can understand why some coaches are complaining. The referee is stood right next to the tackle and missed a knock on that has led to a try. That can't be good can it Stuart?[/i
Stuart [iYes well play happens so fast in can be hard to pick everything up -[/i
Eddie [iBut the technology is there. Why not use it[/i?
Barry [iI don't think that's a knock on, that's a good offload[/i
Eddie [iYes well, if I said it was Black you'd say it's White.[/i
*Cue a 10 minute debate where Eddie waffles on about absolute f*** all instead of commentating about what is happening in live play.*'"
I love your characterisation of the current commentary, although I don't think you necessarily need the radio-style commentary you mentioned - we can all see what is going on, just need to know who the player is and any other bits that might not necessarily pick up on screen with the naked eye.
The pitchside reporting stuff we get is fine and actually tells you something - such and such a player is off for the game, Steve Price is furious with the defence etc.
The commentary / punditry stuff is overcomplicated. As you hint at, McDermott and O'Connor just have an à la carte menu of rough-d (mainly) Yorkshiremen they are determined to bang the drum for every week: McShane, McIlorum, Clubb, Kirmond, Westwood, Walmsley, etc.
