McRae is as shallow a commentator as he is/was a coach.

Spot on. I thought Carney actually worked hard to add some real comment, the Baz and Tez stuff was cringeville.

personally i would get rid of eddie and stevo and have barry, phil 'stats' clarke and carney on together.

I'd have 3 teams. Commentary team - Eddie, Stevo and Mcrae
Studio team Carney, Mcdermot and Davies
pre and post game team on the pitch Bill and AN other

Stevo last night commenting on Bobbie Goulding's appointment.

"There was more than just my eyebrows raised when I heard the news".

Lovely.

Just on Goulding, who is looking pretty well these days.....how good is it to see a bloke around with a bit of fire in his belly from England!


Goulding was the last Pommy halfback that really troubled us. He was just a complete ****hole, I hated him, because he would gob off and not care who he was playing and cause us problems, then tell us all about it!



Technically, he's not going to worry the likes of Bellemy, Sheens, Bennett and co, but you'd love to have him in a really good English coaching set up as an assistant coach because he would have you wanting to run through brick walls after a few minutes of talking to him!


I wonder, how many current English players have the drive he has....

I was expecting this :




From the guys at each end.

Give 'em back the flags and the butcher's coats say I !

Have to say, this thread is one of the funniest I've read in while!



Once again Rugby League was made to look like a small game. Any major international game needs a capacity crowd to make it look like its somert worth watching. The RFL did right by not being overambitious with the size of the venue but it's location was a bad choice.

By choosing Doncaster the RFL seems to have been caught between 2 stools: not an out and out 'development' area but not smack bang in the middle of the heartland so guaranteed to pull in a decent sized crowd.

SKY do seem to be throwing too many pundits/commentators at the game presently.

I've nowt against Eddie Hemmings but would keep limit him to presenting duties in a Richard Keys style. Then hand over to a commentary team of say Clarky, Stevo (for comedy value) and Bill as the main commentator (always been impressed with his knowledge when he does the job). Have a couple of 'expert' summarisers in the studio who offer a good insight before and after the game and at half time. Carney and a.n. other.

Terry & Barry Mac can be amusing but should be kept away from internationals if we hope to present a professional image to non-believers.

I think at times Barry Mac is a funny and entertaining bloke, but the nosensenical cliches he was attempting to use to fill 15 seconds of analysis was just drivel.

Terry ('the forwards need to lay the platform for the half backs so they can play on the front foot') is just a bloke who thinks he's funny and isn't. It's so bad it's not even funny.

Eddie Hemmings is starting to get on my t1ts.

This is good stuff. It is the only decent thing you've said in your entire 'adult' life but good stuff nonetheless.

Can't argue about the camera work anyway, did well to pick out a certain dashing fellow pre-match, I believe

You are never of the tele Matt

Not as much as Phil 'now you know' Clarke does week in, week out ....

still haven't warmed to this idea of having Terry and Barry on the pitch, it just seems necessary and often we miss the restart because they are still talking.

It's very amatuerish imo, especially the slightly mad look on Barry's face when the camera cuts to him and he's not sure when to start speaking

i was on the 2nd row in the south stand sat right behind barry mac, the kiwi lads all night shouting "barry, barry, barry" every time he turned round "your sh-t" very funny they were doing it to the aus players too about 4 players fell for it including their own player Blair



I wondered why Baz kept going on the pitch now i know.

I might as well ask; where is Bill Arthurs from, anyway? He doesn't sound particularly northern, unless he's had elocution lessons.

I think he is northern. I know he worked at Radio City in the 80s and was their commentator at Hillsborough on that dark day in 1989.

Goulding came up through a tough system.

The current scholarship schemes tend to sap the character out of players.

These days players in the UK are given big salaries and told by everyone around them they are amazing before they have even achieved anything. Look at Myler as the latest example.


You look at that compared to the likes of Nathan Hindmarsh or Willie Mason, who have achieved just about everything in the game, and yet because their have not performed at their best in points of their career they have been told they are rubbish.

Eddie Hemmings
Mike Stephenson
Bill Arthur
Phil Clarke
Ben Proe
Shaun McRae (not needed)
Paul Cullen
Martin Offiah
Terry O'Connor
Barrie McDermott
Rod Studd (not needed)
Brian Carney (not needed)

12 people . . . that is far too many!

My ideal format would be this . . .

[uThursday[/u
Main Commentry and Presenters - Bill Arthur and Phil Clarke
Half Time/ Full Time Summary - Barry and Terry
Interviews - Ben Proe

[uFriday[/u
Main Commentry and Presenters - Eddie and Stevo
Interviews - Bill Arthur
Half Time/ Full Time Summary - Phil Clarke
Special Guest - Super League Coach

[uSaturday[/u
Main Commentry and Presenters - Eddie and Stevo
Half Time/ Full Time Summary - Barry and Terry
Interviews - Bill Arthur

[uBoots N All[/u
Presenter - Eddie Hemmings
Panel Guests - Super League Coach and Phil Clarke
Weekend Summary - Paul Cullen
Barry, Terry and Bill should do their usual features.

[uSunday Night Recap (Sky Sports News)[/u
Martin Offiah

Personally, I liked it how it used to be when a Super League coach was the guest on the Friday night game. This gave different reflections, and it was nice to get their thoughts too. Having the same coaches and past players on makes it a little repetitive, and at times a little biased.

You forgot to mention the wire fan angela powers the terry and barry thing when a try as been is scored is very cringworthey could you imagine someone doing that during the scouse v manc game today.

Jesus freaky you didnt stop taking the mick out of Goulding until recently.
Like how you change your tune as and when it suits you

Have to find a place for Angela too . . . she's been there for a while.