As long as they don't get rid of the margin meter then I'm happy.

Have to say, watching some of the "stat-attack" gubbins that they show during matches doesn't half leave me cold. We have the clunky presenting of Waldorf and Statler crashing headlong into a graphic designer's wet dream. Unintelligible, overblown and without substance - it's just flashy tech for the sake of it, the CG quivalent of fur-coat-no-knickers. For a moment the other night I thought I was watching The Day Today.

Bill Arthur is no match for Peter O'Hanraohanan

'Peter; you've lost the news!!'

Here's my take on Sky's presenters

Eddie.....no problem. Make's a few mistakes in commentary, but then, it's a fast moving sport, with a lot of players occupying a small area, around the ball.

Stevo...again, no problem.

It could be worse, we could have some of the faceless droids that currently do Match Of The Day, etc

Pundits
Clarke...... half the time, his insight is fantastic, it's the other 50% where he might as well shout "LISTEN TO ME, I'M GOING TO SAY SOMETHING CONTRAVERSIAL/STUPID/WRONG", when I bang my head against the wall.

Barry and Terry are merely a poor man's Eddie and Stevo

Arthur....far too dull, just have him doing his touchline stuff

Wells, nah, not for me

Carney....please, NO. I can't bear his "take me seriously. I'm an articulate Irishman" demeanour

Shawn "Frank Cannon" McRea and John "Norris Cole" Kear.....letr's get someone else. Sky don't have to keep the dole queue down by two, by employing these pair.

Cullen and Powers.....not bothered.


One side point, why do Sky need to have FOUR people on commentary. IT'S TOO MANY
Eddie
Stevo
Clarke
and guest....too many opinions on the same game

Sorry but Eddie is far too politically correct with his opinions, there isn't an ounce of controversy in him.

If a fight breaks out on the pitch where its little more than handbags at dawn we usually get the Eddie line "We don't need this sort of thing in our game".

Wake up Eddie, its a masculine, virtually full contact sport thats played by men that are pumped up with testosterone, what else is he expecting in the heat of the battle ?

He's too much of a company man for me, far too affraid to be slightly controversial with his opinions. Give me Ray "Rabbit's" Warren any day of the week, he makes a live NRL game really enjoyable with his passion and style of commentary.

i watched a video yesterday from a number of years back and noticed jeff stelling doing some presenting for rugby league and he was in an interview with paul cullen. i think we need someone like him to replace eddie.

There was an article in the League Express a week or so ago which also appeared to round on Sky and its pundits, and the point which resonated with me the most is the sheer amount of pundits on every match.

Elements of this are good, such as hearing from someone on the sideline with injury update, but on the main commentary is it really necessary for 4/5 people throwing in haphazard points. As for Stevo and Eddie, I think their knowledge of the game is superb, but do sometimes question whether they do perhaps need to edit their styles to please a wider audience.

I don't even think Golf has that many commentators over 18 holes, and our rival sports such as Football would laugh at such a concept. For a sport such as ours the system used in American Football is perfectly fine - two commentators on the match, and a further person to liase with on the bench/sideline.

It's an issue that just seems to find another person added into the mix on an annual basis and really does make you wonder if we will have one person commentating per 10m of the pitch.

One thing that did annoy me, even though I'm English, is the WCC game commentary.

When i watch a game i want impartiality, i don't want partisan chest beating patriotism i find it annoying, the only time i enjoy that is if there is a foil, if there was an Aussie beating the Manly drum that would have been fine.

I ended up watching the game through my nokia ear phones (which somehow take the the commentary off yet leave crowd noise on?)

They should be banned from using the term 'world class'. They bring it out during the WCC every year, then persist with using it every time an English player that's been in decent form. Briscoe last year was 'world class' and Ryan Hall is now world class. I can't wait for the next international tournament, just so I can be told by the blokes at Sky that our players are world class. I'm sure they get it from the football pundits, as they often use the term, particularly big premier league games and champions league games.

Ahh World Class. Oh the fun we used to have on here winding Saints up with that.

Get Chris Kamara on the touchline. Unbelieveable Eddie!!!!!!!

I think he's pretty spot on to be honest and my interpretation is that he is saying positive things about the game but that it's let down by the presentation .

The whole presentation of the game on Sky reinforces the Northern stereotype - even to the opening credit sequence with the robots running into each other and the pre-season adverts about Super League making you tough - all reinforce the 13 blokes running into each other. Compare with the promos for Sky F1, which are brilliant. (Motor racing is my favourite sport so they may be singing to the choir with me).

Stevo when he's allowed to is actually a good reader of the game. Phil Clarke is terrible and adds nothing, ditto McRae.

It shows how far Sky's coverage has fallen when I would say the BBC's coverage is now better - it treats the audience as intelligent adults and has a great team on it - Claire Balding's enthusiasm with Nobby and Jiffy providing good analysis. Dave Woods is a great commentator particularly with John Kear alongside.

I wouldn't get rid of Eddie and Stevo but it's probably time Eddie was just the presenter and Stevo being allowed to do some analysis.

The truth probably is that rugby league on Sky probably has a relatively small production budget. For example on the RU coverage Jon Wells' equivalent analyst piece is done from a VT truck rather than freezing his off on the pitch - he's probably shouting to try and keep himself warm!

Which other sport on Sky has the main presenter doubling up as the commentator?