IN PRAISE OF WILKIN
JON WILKIN is continuing to set the standards for punditry with cutting-edge insight and analysis on Sky Sports.
Wilkin never shirks an issue or straight-bats awkward questions. He delivers honesty and forthright opinion. Some of it is shrouded with controversy at times and a few eyebrows are raised with what gets said, but the game needs more of it across the board.
His complete character assassination and bluntness in how he described the Catalans’ capitulation against Hull Kingston Rovers was echoed by many who were perhaps frightened to say the same thing for fear of backlash. However you dress it up, he hit the nail on the head.
His assessment of the recent women’s International alongside Jenna Brooks and Jodie Cunningham on ‘The Bench Podcast’ was another key example.
Rather than sugar-coating the embarrassing defeat by England Women in Las Vegas, he factually outlined that the game lacks the finance to support the athletes in the same way as their Australian counterparts.
He is a fantastic male advocate of the women’s game in the same way Ian Wright is in football and you can tell he wants it to grow organically.
Wilkin is more than ably supported by Jodie Cunningham, who continues to improve and flourish in her broadcasting.
They work well as a duo and I hope Sky keep putting them together on games.
Joshua Worrall, Widnes
INVINCIBLE ROBINS
Hull KR’s rise to the very top is not an overnight phenomenon but an evolution under Willie Peters over the last two or three seasons.