I can only hope that Daryl Halligan has lost his voice or is currently on trial with name supression Lion Man style because if neither is true then some toolbag at Sky has brought Peter Ropati back off the sideline to the main commentary team.

I mean who could ask for more than "the warriors have to do what they least expect" and "when they roll not many come with them.." um .... wtf ?

Muppet muppet muppet...

Last weeks golden moment was when the feed from Aus cut out and we cut straight back to Peter and Steve in the studio.

Two minutes of totally unscripted, unprepared for, impromptu discussion about league. I've never seen two minutes of more unnerving television. Crikey, they looked like they'd been caught interfering with a sheep.

This is dead and buried but I can;t help myself I have to add a highlight from Sundays halftime "analysis" by Ropati and Mac. Their finishing statement after 10 mins of dribble:

"Strength is the key here, they've got to go out and play some football".

Thanks lads I thought it was 13 men in a very involved session of cooking pikelets.

-S

You can't have seen the game then my friend.

Sure there was Lion Red Gameday with Bert and Ernie talking bollocks as per usual. BUT when it came kickoff time all I could hear was Costo and Halligan. What?? no Ropo and MacGyver I thought ???

After several bizarre comments from Halligan about Ropo being "down in the rye" it became gloriously clear that he's gooooooooooone. Peter Ropati, relegated to the sideline commentary (MacGyvers old role). And MacGyver himself even further down the chain bringing the halftime report from the assistant coaches. hahahahah brilliant!!

It was a bit weird at first, Costo doing his usual but almost all him and eerily quiet otherwise. But within 15 minutes Halligan had upped his talk rate and was throwin out gems of info 100 mile an hour. The guy is a munt but I have to give it to him, he knows his shyte. The play where the new fullback scored his first big break off a logan swann start ended up having a try scored off it by someone I can;t remember (yeh awesome memory eh). However while the cameras focused on that Halligan was pointing out to everyone that the break by the fullback was key and that the first person both Wiki and Price congratulated and patted on the back after the try wasn;t the try scorer but the new fullback. A nice touch all round..

I give it a 7/10. It could possibly do with some new blood in the 3rd commentary spot (if sky can spare the cash) but is sooo much less painful than last season.

Any more positive events occurring in the world and I may join the seminary.

As an avid league supporter and regular TV Guide letters to the editor writer I too am disheartened my dear Kate. But I'd rather my colourful and inane comments than the vitriolic bile you've spewed forth. Have a DB Bitter and chill my dear.

Now personal comments aside, I think you need to re-read my post. I do have issues with MacGyver and Ropati, but it is as a real league fan I have issues with them because of the lack of any real information or true commentary they provide. What they look like, you're right is totally irrelevant.

As to what they say, cringeworthy is putting it mildly. I posted it as a bit of an attempt to start discussion on this because as yet I have not found a single league supporter that disagrees significantly with any of this.

a. dont watch it
Yeh thanks for that.

b. buy a television remote and change the channel
I like watching things live

c. fly to australia and watch as much channell 9 as you like.
Piss off.

d. maybe you should cover the league on sky tv!!! because, lets face it, your language is impeccable!
I could hardly do worse even if I did it jamaican drinking game style.

e. join your pulp sport buddies (possibly the most "literally unitelligble" show ive ever seen) and mock the shit out of stephen like you think is deserve
I think he gets enough. last time I went to the Wellington Sevens parade most people were throwing tickertape at him. Rolled up...

d. have a bitch to someone who cares
Obviously not you Mrs Macgyver now please get on back to rearranging his facial products, I'm guessing theres a few.

Anyway back to it. I go on to state that their co commentators are actually not that bad and how I even rate Halligan (Tea Ropati too). Halligan himself would by far and away have the worst language and grammar skills of the lot but still conveys useful and insightful info. But that's also completely irrelevant because it's league not a debate. Get me info on the game, how it's being played and why, I don't care what terms you use just tell me something useful and entertaining. Speak in pidgin, draw me a fkin diagram, all good senor. Tune in to Radio Sport or Maori TV if you want to listen to some quality contrast, the main reason I prefer Channel 9 is again because it's LIVE and because Mac and Ropati are arse.

Yes I don't list many examples other than the glaring one at the end (which would be enough for most people) but that's because after every damn game there would be a page of them. Invite me round to your Sky Corporate box next season and I'll point them out for you. Failing the offer of hospitality I'll post a few after the first match this season. Seriously if it's examples you want you're on a hiding to nothing. (Man I'm getting good at using these cliches, perhaps you're right I SHOULD be a commentator...)

Go into your average Cossie Club, RSA or public bar across Auckland (or anywhere in NZ for that matter) and ask them their opinion. Seriously whats your real objection Kate?

Please note.. the ball is O V A L ......

I swear I can't take it much longer. Please for the love of god can SKY ditch their shabby attempts at localising televised rugby league by using Peter Ropati and Steven MacGyver.

It's got to be cheaper to just pipe in channel 9 commentary for the live rugby league. I have nothing against NZ commentators, there are some great ones (try Maori TV's ones), however if I have to listen to Peter Ropati's constant meaningless cliches for another hour I'm going to go all Aramoana style on someone.

Not just the fact that whatever he says is utter regurgitated meaningless crap its actually literally unintelligible as he cannot even finish a sentence properly. They make no sense and I'm not talking in league terms here. He gets halfway through a tired cliche and gets it wrong and his sentence changes to try and say something else and ends up as gibberish. Often he realises and just stops talking as soon as theres a tackle to try and bail out. You rugby people may think Murray Mexteds bad but the mans work is a veritable Oxford Union Speech in comparison.

I don't even care much if you keep the NZ commentary as the others are bad but a mixed bag and bearable:

MacGyver - Seriously this man is paid to talk about Rugby League????? The best piece of televised sport in the last decade was Clint Brown beating him to a pulp in the fight for life. Sicophantic, self obsessed and clueless. However his radio experience does mean he can be understood (probably not useful to him though).
Ropati - Having international level experience does NOT necessarily make a person a good commentator of their sport(Martin Crowe anyone?). I haven't spoken with a single league supporter who feels that Peter Ropati should do anything other than get a day job as a Hallensteins suit catalogue model and stay far from anything oval.
Costigan - He's ok, keeps the commentary flow going, isn't too biased, can manage the english language and tie his own shoelaces.
Halligan - Grumpy and a bit muntah but great as far as providing information you didn;t know and actually knowing what he's talking about. I mean it's rugby league, he IS the target market, he relates.

Ah hell while I'm at it I'll add a few more things about the Tri Nations final. At the start of the match (I'm assuming due to technical problems) we had the Aussie Channel 9 commentators for 5-10 minutes and then cutover to Costo and Ropati. The difference was like night and day.

Not to mention the after match interviews where MacGyver bails up Ruben Wiki to ask if he's retiring or not and then quickly moves on to then break the news to Brian McLennan during his next interview. So much for the meaningful dressing room anouncement.. Top work MacGyver, everything the guys in Pulp Sport ever did to you was not enough by half.

I think I've vented enough....