Yep none of the current crew can quite do the damage to our game that that clown did.

I think Bill Arthur is the worst play-by-play commentator I've heard in any sport. Adds nothing, never knows what's going on. Pyke isn't much better.

As many have said many times, it feels like Sky gave up on RL years ago. Been drifting for a while.

I’m not going to complain about any commentary ever again after listening to the monatomic drone of Stuart Cummins for years.
I’d rather have Jedwood summarise!

I never thought I'd see "monatomic" used on a Rugby League forum. I trust that it's a bit of 'predictivetexterese' rather than suggesting that Cummings used Helium to spice things up a bit?

I’m getting a 4 Weddings Rowan Atkinson speech vibe here.

Out of interest of all the commentators we have had who do you think was best.

I don't mind them too much really, but they can absolutely all be improved on for me. I don't mind Jon Wells, I quite like his post match analysis with a player. Amor came across a but anti wire last week, but will probably be fine once the bitterness has subsided. I do like carney as the anchor. I don't even mind Jon Wilkin. Stuart Pyke i will reserve judgement on, it hasn't been long enough to judge him yet. I wouldn't miss Phil Clarke though.

I find the current setup better than Eddie and Stevo who irritated me every week.

This is a really good point. It just wastes two minutes, talking to someone who is obviously and understandably distracted by what's happening on the pitch, and meanwhile nobody is actually talking about what's happening on the pitch. I find it hard to believe that the coaches or assistants have agreed to do it - it must be inconvenient and intrusive for them. Something they have been pressured into by Sky, perhaps?

What was interesting about last nights game was Jon Wells sitting in with Wigan at half time, no idea how much is withheld but was interesting none the less.

My first thought was that we should send the "monatomic drone" to the Ukraine as it sounds plausible as a Weapon of Mass Destruction or Distraction.... Putin would soon be on the run one way or the other. .

You been stealing morriseyisawire’s Harvey’ Bristol Cream

We all bemoaned Eddie & Stevo back in the day but they were far better than what we have currently. Bill Auther is useless as we know. Pyke sounds like he's commentating on a Sunday league game. All sounds very cheap and the chopping and changing between them all makes it worse. I agree that John Wells has a touch of class about him and usually knows what he's talking about. The rest..

Not sky but I thought Clive Tyldesley was superb when itv aired games. Tbh I thought hemming was okay. Atm I'd rather have Arthur than Pyke.

Punditry
I don't watch it. I don't need Jon Wells micromanaging set plays, to make himself seem insightful.

Commentary.
Godhelpus. McDermott and his crap clichés or trying to be irreverent. When a player's conversion kick was unsuccessful, apparently, he'd hit [ithe beans on toast[/i!!!!. Tonight, he was trying to be funny by making T'Pau song puns. What a prat. Then there's tosh like "staying on the island" and "buying some real estate"

The amount of people.
Tonight, there was Carney, Wilkins and Tomkins

Commentating was Arthur and two maybe three "assistants" (I hardly saw any of it)

Then there's Wells and (I assume, Brooks on the touchline).
So that's 8 maybe 9 people for 1 game of RL. I despair.

Ray French, now he’s retired I’d say Dave Woods.

I’m not really a fan of French (nothing personal against him, he’s a lovely guy and very knowledgeable) simply because he represents the old-school BBC view of RL.

However, I get a warm fuzzy feeling when hearing him on clips of old challenge cup matches on YouTube etc, as it reminds me of watching RL on Grandstand on a cold winter’s Saturday afternoon. Mud, proper old school scraps on the pitch, fans running on at the end of the game etc etc.

I thought Sam Tomkins was excellent last night. No sitting on the fence or bland statements, and not afraid to call out players for their errors. Would like to see him on Sky more often, but he referred to having a role with Catalans arranged for next year.

So after 5 pages, we have a number of 'good' commentators, but quite a few seem to be retired.

Clive Tyldesley seems to come out on top so far, but I'd rather concentrate on those still commentating.

Andrew Voss, Jon Champion - generally positive
Stuart Pyke, Kyle Amor, Sam Tomkins, Jon Wilkin get mixed reviews, but overall positive.
Carney is seen as a little bit below them, and below Adam Hills.

Is that it?
Come on you lot!!

Interestingly there is a seemingly common gripe that there are too many presenters and we could do with slimming them down.
One commentator and one side kick for the 80 minutes.
One introducer and one analyser prior /post match (plus half time).
Get the commentator doing the post match interview, so you can do a good job with four.

Not read all the posts but can’t get my head around Wilkin in the positive camp, the guy just never stops talking and prevents others speaking at times, don’t no if anyone recalls but he was made fun of for this in a challenge cup game on the BBC.

Gary Lineker anyone now he seems to be available

talking of football enjoyed it when Chris Kamara was a guest one time.

Hard to believe Mick Morgan hasn’t received a nomination…

I’d love it he he took over at sky….even if it were just Cas v Wigan as a renaissance!

Hard to believe Mick Morgan hasn’t received a nomination…

I’d love it he he took over at sky….even if it were just Cas v Wigan as a renaissance!

Just watching crufts on Chanel 4 and the very knowledgeable Clair balding is presenter,.she did a bit of punditry on our beloved game and did a good job much better than some that we have

She’s just got the tennis gig on the beeb, so I doubt we’ll see her back in RL any time soon.

She made a great anchor though, which was helping to dispel the old stereotype.

Gary Pillocker would probably say our game is stuck in the 1930s. Now no one reply with he's probably right.