ARE SKY'S STANDARDS FALLING?
THERE was some debate at the start of the season that adding three new clubs to Super League might lower standards and may lead to some one-sided scorelines involving those three clubs.
Frankly, there has been little evidence of that so far, with the three new clubs all having enjoyed some early success in the competition.
But where there has been a weakness, in my opinion, is in the television coverage of seven Super League games each week.
I think the quality of coverage has fallen away markedly, not necessarily for the main games covered by Sky Sports, but certainly for some of the games that are on the red button.
On Friday night, for example, I tuned in to the game between Toulouse and St Helens.
I'm prepared to accept that Sky might struggle to give good coverage to a game in France.
But on Friday, the weakness in the coverage was with the main commentator, who sounded like an Australian who had absolutely no interest in what he was there to talk about.
He could easily have been reading from a recipe book, such was the obvious lack of excitement in his voice.
Unfortunately, when the commentator sounds bored, the game seems boring to the viewer. Surely the objective of a commentator and his co-commentator is to stimulate the viewer's interest in the game.
But unfortunately that didn't happen on Friday night.
Anyone who wants to understand how a commentator should talk about a game should listen ideally to Dan Ginnane, who in my view is currently the world's best Rugby League commentator.