Sky Sports
looking ahead to new season, post stevo
“were going into new territory with our commentary and presentation, thats the main thing, were enhancing the
graphics last year carry our news service so were enhancing those, exclusive - were aiming to get a camera on a
player in the Warrington v Brisbane match, first one thats used in a rugby league game first time its used in a
contact sport and we did a test the other day so at the moment were probably 80% there weve just got to make a
couple of adjustments, the most important thing is player safety, the player wearing the camera but also the
player the opposition players so theres a few things we need to adjust but we did a test on monday so fingers
crossed and i hope youve got your fingers crossed for me, you cant write this up as an absolute certainty but all
being well Kurt Gidley will be wearing the camera on the match. theres still a few hurdles to get over and all going
well we will publish edits of it online and get kurt on the next day at the wigan v cronulla game to talk about it.”
replacing stevo
“the bottom line there is how do you replace stevo, he’s unique, he was a legend he had a fantastic career, i think
if you look at it from the time he signed professionally i worked it out from the establishment of the game in 1895
to stevo retiring last year he has been involved in the game for about 40% of its existence professionally he got
his MBE we gave him his lap of honour last year, replacing id say you cant replace someone like stevo, him and
eddie were such an iconic pairing but what we have been doing over the last 10 years weve been preparing for it,
theres no rush theres no need to do any drastic changes but what I’ve done is build a team around it and that will
be that barrie and terry will feature in the commentary with eddie alongside commentary including phil and brian
but barrie and terry will be the main two wingmen for eddie, jon wells will do his bit, the presentation brian will
now become the main presenter and phil will be alongside him, especially on thursday nights where beginning of
the league we will be extending the programme to an hours build up so we will get a revue of the weeks news
and then look ahead to the whole weekend and then finally getting into the nitty gritty thursday night game, jon
and brian half time show will continue and then post match will be similar to what youve seen last year, similar
presentation team if you like of brian and phil and jon wells, weve got a lot of activity around social media as well
Facebook live with barrie and terry, the barrie and terry Facebook live at the beginning of the match was really
popular getting big figures for coming on just before the end of the game, the grand final id say a great example
of what and how should be done by our digital team did a presentation of a few weeks ago, also what well be
doing this year is really wrapping up our digital publishing of a match especially on a sunday so we sped up the
process we will be offering up clips on a sunday afternoon for in play incidents, tries, all those bits and pieces and
all being well we will have tries edits within a few minutes of the full time whistle of each of those games. thats
something weve worked on in the last 2 years and if youve got the opportunity to do it getting the live feed from
the matches and now weve got the chance to exploit that and give a good service to the fans. long term plan and
hoping not too long a sunday afternoon digital appointment will be a continuing rolling blog of all the other games
with clips publishing so people can follow that as it happens, they can fly there kites with the kids they can sit at
the bus stop cutting their grass as long as theyve got a good 4g connection they can keep up to speed with all
the afternoons super league.”
championship games
“no that wont be part of that on a thursday night, thursday night will be a super league, a round up of the weeks
news building up towards the game. were in some discussions about the championship games, weve got a
warrant territory to cross, we’ll be doing the summer bash and we will be covering the championship clubs in the
qualifying 8s we only cross the board rights because that is the qualifying competition for super league. theres
one or two suggestions about championship but generally speaking our focus will be i wont say our focus will be
super league but certainly what i can promise you is championship is not off our radar its not something were
gonna just ignore but we have to put the resources into the elite league competition. what we try and do is offer a
very good service to rugby league fans, in all reality your probably not gonna get as many people watching the
championship match and everytime you set up an ob its costing the business, its something that we do feel very
strongly and we want to try and complete the service in as much as possible across the game there are one or
two other areas that we are looking at.”
super league this year, super 8s etc
“weve seen two great million pound games, we bought into it we promote it were happy with what were getting
from it, theres probably one or two tweaks but those our game issues not ours we don’t instruct or influence how
the game is structured we put a bid in or we take on offer what structure of the game they put up to sell if that
makes sense. they put this together i think weve had some fantastic competition in the qualifying 8s the million
pound game it causes a stir it causes some controversy but the reality is if the game wants promotion and
relegation then thats its choice and therefore somewhere and somehow someones going to get relegated.
certainly the million pound game last year hull kr and salford that on that day was our second highest rating
programme of the year, it was massive success as an event it delivered a huge audience and delivered emotion,
heartache, drama it was almost as dramatic as ryan halls try in the leeds v huddersfield the year before where
the league leaders shield was decided in the last 10 seconds of the season that was fantastic, how a team can
surrender an 8 point lead 3 minutes from full time in the last 3 mins was incredible, desperately sorry for hull kr
they are a great club but as i said the game itself chose to go down the promotion and relegation route i think we
have the licence for 6 years, for where we come from were used to a competition where you can finish last and 3
years later you become premiers they can rebuild their business, rebuild their squad thats what licensing was all
about the sporting culture in this country desires something different therefore the game took this choice and its
delivered a million pound game and the model for that was the one they all talked about and that was the
wakefield v castleford match in whatever year that was, everybody talked about that but the face was in just
under 20 years that was the only time it happened, the rest of the time you had teams relegated 6 weeks out 8
weeks out i think the concept of the million pound game is a good one and certainly theres no question that as an
event it has delivered and thats something for the game itself to debate we don’t apply pressure either way we
don’t say youve got to have that if you use them games for something different we embrace that and get on with
that but i have a suspicion they want to continue with it.”
trend in broadcasting high quality games
“the magic weekend is fantastic and all credit to nigel wood who’s that was his idea and he put it out there and
we all went whats this about it was pretty successful in its first year and certainly from that point on its building
and i think theyve found a great home in newcastle the town is absolutely rocking on a saturday night youve got
6 sensational games, it delivers for the players a grand final atmosphere, grand final arena, players that would
normally not get to play on that sort of stage and without fail it delivers at least one or two dramatic moments all
the colour of it the fans in party mode, dressed up, it doesnt matter where you point the cameras at youve got
something to look at and have a laugh at and watch people enjoying themselves and i think its probably one of
the greatest the greatest advertisement for what rugby league is all about we call it the family sport we call it
everything else and thats what it is, hull kr playing hull and the fans all sat together and weve got shots of the hull
families in different coloured shirts in the red and the black just enjoying themselves im a massive fan of magic.”
looking ahead
“never say never those rights are sewn up or another couple of years anyway i think so there not out in the
market place at the moment, obviously it would be great we think were the home of rugby league, it would be
terrific but also theres another broadcaster out there that has them on and is doing a good job, i get to watch
manly play every week anyway so.”
ratings for super league
“yeah the figures were up i think overall they were up and certainly thursday nights have been a success on
screen the figures there are on a par with the friday nights and weve shown on screen people have got a lot of
stuff to do over the weekend the catalan matches do well and bearing in mind thats not our broadcast as much
as were taking a feed in from the french coverage but again what we all know those of us that are that rugby
league fans are very hard core and they love there rugby league above and beyond particularly in this country
their own clubs and theyll absorb it, the saturday evenings do well bearing in mind theyre a feed we put
commentary on but the Thursday nights and friday nights , friday nights are just solid as a rock and thursday
nights are certainly becoming that way figures on a par with the friday nights.”
world club series
“thats an issue for the game i championed the whole thing s few years ago i think its probably a shame in some
ways that the world club series wasn’t established in 1996 when the whole super league started it was put out
and it was gonna be the top 4 teams from each country may well have been, 1997 was a bit of a let down when
all the clubs played in terms of the resurrection and expansion into a series and we are still 100% behind it i think
its a shame its gone from 3 to 2 but thats what the game has decided is best for its business and well support it.
what i love about it again is the colours i love the thought of seeing warrington and brisbane colours up against
each other, wigan and cronulla should be sensational, that should be a terrific afternoon, in terms of where they
go with it next year i think well just have to wait and see. last year was a disappointment with the results
especially with the leeds results and i think that blocked out the fact that the wigan brisbane game the year
before went to extra time and warrington st george and souths were just awesome and very powerful, last year
disappointing, youve got leeds coming off the back of first of all losing the 3 legends then danny mcguire getting
injured in the first match the week before you couldnt count for that you couldnt factor that in and then your
playing jonathan thurston. maybe im just very optimistic, the four nations was a disappointment but i think wigan
will set cronulla up i actually think wigan will win that one.”
toovey at bradford
“i don’t know, he’s a manly legend, i refereed him when he was 6 and he was one of these kids that stood out
from the crowd, he was at one of these clubs that didnt lose a game for about 7 years so it was heartbreaking for
the other kids in that age group but he was pocket sized then at that time as well late 70s even under 6s played
13 a side and full side so it was just like a little beehive running around after him he’d pick up the ball from
dummy half and he’d just run sideways and then just run round them I’ve remember seeing him in an under 10s
grand final and he ran into a tackle and he just leaned forward stood up in the tackle and popped a pass to his 5
8 and sprinted through and scored its something out of first grade, so we will see how he goes I’ve heard mixed
stories about him at manly i was sorry for him that that happened the way it did he probably went into the position
too early when des left the natural progression would have been for des to move onto club exec and geoff
toovey to finish his apprenticeship he got pitched in still got a grand final within one point of winning the
premiership but whether he made a few calls that werent well received i guess so we will see, bradford its going
to be a tough job for anyone.”
“commentary in particular eddie is and has been the voice of rugby league for 40 years he’s done, and i think this
should be a tribute to him, all the work he has done and put in as presenter and commentator which isn’t an easy
pairing of jobs to do it was eddie and stevo in presentation eddie and stevo in commentary for a long long time
weve built up a team around them, eddie is a supreme broadcaster, he is an outstanding broadcaster, he’s an
outstanding commentator and one of the ways we judge that if you like is when we edit piece music pieces etc
and we take eddie commentary grab the timing is always immaculate the voice is immaculate the tone and the
most important thing is just enjoyment and enthusiasm and what he will get with barrie and terry is the same
thing, barrie and terry if i put them in front of tv set in ostley doing a catalan game or i put them on a wet icy night
at wakefield or old trafford in a grand final i get the same level of passion and enjoyment and enthusiasm out of
them, the three of them love working together, we tinkered with the whole thing when stevo had his hip operation
last year and he was off for quite a while and that in commentary was the right combination we found, phil offers
very good support with analysis which hell come in and reap the game every now and then and brian and phil
work together very very well in presentation both big students of the match and the game and spend a bit of time
preparing and thinking about it and jon wells is i think one of the most articulate and capable people on the touch
screen in any sport pieces weve done with him and the players, and 2 that really stand out from last year are
trent robinson and johnathan thurston they were just television gold, weve got a great team we really do have a
great bunch of people with a fantastic track record in the game and a terrific broadcasting record.”
eddie
“he’s one of my best mates and I’ve stood on his foot and pinned him to the wall and made him promise me
another couple of years at least and he and i have worked together across the lens for a quarter of a century so
we stay at each others houses i was only at his place the other night and we put the world to rights till the early
hours, I’ve got it into him to hang around for a bit longer and eddie deserves that time as well not only to develop
the others which is part of his mission but also its been eddie and stevo for a long long time, eddie and stevo are
a brand eddies a brand on his own as well i want to make sure he gets that recognition in the next couple of
years.”