I must be in the minority, but I do miss Eddie and Stevo.
Whenever I have my insomnia episodes of a weekend, I'll put the NRL on, and I DESPISE their commentators. All they do is SHOUT. Someone knocks on in the middle of the pitch after 30 minutes, when the game is 0-0, and you'd swear that Jesus Christ, Einstein and Henry VIII had just walked in the room. Dreadful (imo)

Eddie and stevo were great in their day and did a lot to make the game popular and good to watch. I agree they had gone on a bit long and needed replacing, but there's no point replacing people with inferior ones. The current commentary 'team' on sky are an absolute joke,...............................but then again so is the product on the pitch mostly!

Agree with your sentiments Lefty.

The main problem with the current Super League season is that there is now a disincentive to play fixtures with the % rule that has been introduced, rather than the traditional points system.

It is too easy to dodge a game that a team doesn`t fancy and the season has become a total farce.

If only a post could earn a hundred likes

I see James Bentley has picked up where he left off.

I'm not a violent person, but I hope someone rips off his dangly bits and posts them to his mother.

If we got our act together we could walk this season. Wigan are abject and Saints are average. Powell can't come soon enough.

We'll never have a better chance.

This truly is a game of appalling"quality"

He's gone past the the level of pantomime villain, and reached the gobe heady heights of "LMS", or dare I say it, Ryan Bailey

Won't happen it'll be saints Wigan or Leeds..same old same old...we may scrape it to final than normality kicks in

He's playing as if someone already has done so.

I have Telly Savalas singing that line in my head.

Apologies, "speaking" that line in my head.

Most this Wigan side will in the disciplinary review come Monday, guess Bentley will get nothing again though.

What happend first half with Bentley?

Love how the commentary described Wigan's "intent" as frustration, what I saw second half was thuggery. I'm all for the game being tough and played right on the edge, but for starters, Isa should've seen red for the hit on the floor.

Let's see if the supposed conspiracy at red hall comes into play.

Ben Floweresque


No wonder people are turning away from our game, if that's what a "glamour" tie, serves up.

Dire

He didn’t like Bateman pushing is leg out of the way so decided to give a sly kick to the head, not a major one but should still cop a ban for it. No idea why Bateman got binned as well.

Biff is good, I'm all for it. Bans will inevitably follow but it livens the game up.

Thuggery, like Bentley kicking out at someone on the floor, or Isa, twice crossing the line isn't what the game needs.

Although there were quite a few unforced errors I enjoyed the game. I quite like tough defence and there was a lot of that. Some of it was the wrong side of the fine line.
If I had to pick one player that we could sign from those 2 teams it would be Morgan Knowles. He hits like a sledge hammer in defence and really rattles opposition players. It is 10 years ago that we had players that defended like that. It was only when watchng some of the wrestling in the Olympics that I really realised how much we have taken that on.
I know hitting hard might result in attackers bouncing off and carrying on but far more entertaining that watch players grappling and trying to control levers. Putting shots on doesn't half intimidate the opposition. Last night wigan were intimidated by the collision and were beaten after the first 10 mins.

Is it possible that the game will have to be further toned down in the future though regarding big hits & biff ? Football is possibly going to lose heading the ball so some of the big hits & high tackles in RL will surely have the same effect to cause brain injuries. We 'll soon be turning up to watch touch rugby.

When it comes to biff, I, like a lot of fans, am a massive hypocrite.

I love watching the fights and wish there were more. If there was a big all in brawl in a Wire v Wigan match I would talk about it for decades as a great moment for rugby league. But if I saw the same behaviour from the fans outside the pub before the game I'd be on my high horse saying they were scum and should be banned for life for disgracing the club.

I also think the way we view brawling as heroic could easily go sour if a player ended up with a serious injury. What happens if a guy gets a fractured eye socket and loses his sight in the fight, could we still class it as a legendary bit of biff?

But yes, aside from being self aware about this inconsistency, I do find RL players fighting to be good entertainment and always have.

Think we all do, and are all inwardly frustrated that those days are gone forever....

The issue with rugby players playing hard and enjoying a bit of "biff" is that it's usually a fairly equal contest it's in a controlled environment and you have the opportunity of getting your own back and then shaking hands at the end of the game and having a social. The old players that I've spoken to loved that spirit as it proved that they were hard uncompromising but in general gave as good as they got and they were SPORTS

Fans outside the pub brawling bears no comparison to ANY of that and by and large it's based on cowardice where one group outnumber the other

There's always a weird pretense from commentators that "we don't want to see that" when, in fact, everyone does. Whether they admit it or not.

When people talk about RL not being as good as it used to, I think the loss of aggression and needle is the biggest factor. Watching two sides go at each other was edge of your seat stuff. It was unmatched by any other sport.

Instead of cancelling games, they could say if you can't raise a full team each side nominate their hardest three guys available and they can fight for the points, last man standing. First half fists only then you can bring nunchucks and stuff in the second half. Doesn't need to be in the stadium they could just find an old skipyard, just make sure the cameras are there. You could sell the TV rights to a wider audience than watches rugby league.

Could allow coaches too, Brian McDermott, Karl Harrison.

This. Same with a crash in F1 (very dull if there isn't one). However, ones darker side gets reeled in when thinking of Ayrton Senna and Noel's House Party, when what was an integral part of the "show" goes mortally wrong for some individuals.

I wonder if actually the real reason people like brawls is because the intensity of the game inevitably increases afterwards.

After two front rowers have had a big head to head, next hit up you know the one who has the ball is going to seek out his opposite number and run it in harder than he has done all game. The fans will get into the game too. You never get a game where the teams just go through the motions after there has been a brawl. Scoreboard doesn't matter.

The WW3 game is legendary for the fisticuffs, but also because of the intensity of the game. Same with the Bradford game in 2000.