Re: Sky Sports Punditry : Sun Apr 09, 2017 8:51 am  

Wire wrote:

It's interesting to hear this perspective from an "outsider". I don't think the pundits let all that much bias slip out (nor do I care if they do) but I have gotten an anti-Warrington bias from Eddie a number of times. I do think that sometimes it could be attributed to him being neutral and me having my primrose and blue specs on; a good example is the 2013 SF against Hudds - when Grix went over to pretty much seal the game Eddie legitimately said "Oh no!". It could be that he wanted to see the underdog win, just like no neutral really wants Wigan to win.

The problem is all of the commentators (SKY, local radio etc.) are biased, because they are all fans of a club, and,as you rightly admit, we're all biased as well, and nobody likes cheating Wigan!

Re: Sky Sports Punditry : Sun Apr 09, 2017 12:52 pm  

PCollinson1990 wrote:

The problem is all of the commentators (SKY, local radio etc.) are biased, because they are all fans of a club, and,as you rightly admit, we're all biased as well, and nobody likes cheating Wigan!

Local radio pundits I have no problem with, that's the audience they are serving...Humberside radio is quite special for that....!!!

But Eddie Hemmings should be beyond that ...ALL the NRL commentators are impartial,

He's so petty with it though Like When Walmersley was done for the 8 point try .... he's like a velociraptor ...he remembers...!!!

the following Wire game Savelio tackles a scoring winger before he gets the ball down and its nothing remotely like the Walmersley incident but Hemmings pipes up

" Stuart whats the difference between that and what Alex Walmersley did".

he's obsessed with highlighting every fart our players do....

Re: Sky Sports Punditry : Sun Apr 09, 2017 6:05 pm  

I have always thought Hemmings hated Warrington ... The "oh nooooo" when Grix scored against Hudds in the Play offs... The "poor Richie Mathers " when he saw red for almost removing Matt Kings head.. And the "really" when Catalan had a try chalked off by the VR..Are a few examples but,He's not even trying to hide it any more..
A few people have told me Hemmings and the other clowns were particularly bad the other night but I wouldn't know as I haven't seen the game back..
I have just moved house and I cancelled my subscription and to be honest I'm probably not going to renew it.

Re: Sky Sports Punditry : Sun Apr 09, 2017 6:09 pm  

Just wondering how we square all this 'Eddie hates us' with his 'Briers for Britain' campaign?

Re: Sky Sports Punditry : Sun Apr 09, 2017 6:16 pm  

Sporting Billy wrote:

Just wondering how we square all this 'Eddie hates us' with his 'Briers for Britain' campaign?

That was before Tony Smith ripped into his mate Stevo for asking a ridiculous question whilst he was GB coach..
Hemmings and his cronies have disliked us ever since..

Re: Sky Sports Punditry : Sun Apr 09, 2017 8:23 pm  

This thread smacks of paranoia. I can buy the fact that people think the commentary is poor (though surely you can't complain about the actual coverage-watch the choice of camera angles for a Catalans game and try and argue that point!); but to suggest anti-Wire bias is a little silly. The fans of most clubs in the league probably think Sky are anti-their club: most people cited Stevo as a closet Rhino, yet the South Stand had a spell of regularly chanting 'Stevo what's the score' when ahead in a televised game.

Generally I think the coverage is pretty fair. However the commentary can be poor (much prefer BBC for this), and I don't really get Barrie and Terry. Clarkey I don't mind, and Wells and Carney have freshened up the format. I'd prefer Woods with another (varied ex-player) summariser/opinion giver, and ditch Cummins (who is only needed as the current lot can be a bit vague on the rules, and obsess about refereeing decisions too much!)

Re: Sky Sports Punditry : Mon Apr 10, 2017 4:04 pm  

With all this"everybody hates us "negativity thought I'd stumbled on the Wakefield forum

Re: Sky Sports Punditry : Mon Apr 10, 2017 7:27 pm  

Leythersteve wrote:

With all this"everybody hates us "negativity thought I'd stumbled on the Wakefield forum

You lot are OK ,the Sky lot seem to love Derek and his Leigh boys.. Good luck to you

Re: Sky Sports Punditry : Tue Apr 11, 2017 10:38 am  

It's quite funny knowing we get under his skin so much.

Re: Sky Sports Punditry : Tue Apr 11, 2017 11:19 am  

The bias isn't a problem for me, the problem I have is for a minority sport trying to attract new fans, we spend the majority of the analysis reviewing decisions than showing the skill. The commentary (not just Friday) is generally about errors, penalties and mistakes made by both players and officials, whereas the NRL commentators wax lyrical about the moments of skill. It's a completely different viewing experience.

I'm not calling for propaganda, just to spend less time scrutinising the mistakes and enjoy the game. I couldn't care if Ablett's hand was on the ball or not, it's a knock on, show the game! If we can't find something in 40 minutes for Wells to look at other than the Atkins knock on and the Westwood 'tackle' then we are in desperate times indeed.