Sky Commentary Team

With the off season rolling on, thought it might be good for us to reassess how we feel about the Sky commentary team. Looking back at some older posts, it seems like we thought that Dewhurst made a half decent effort at transitioning from radio to TV, but seems like he hasn't developed much as a commentator since then, makes some ridiculous calls (claiming Hogg's goal for the AWs as the best you will see), makes numerous factual errors, and gets far to excited at times. While most feelings about De Jong have stayed the same (ie. he is about as fun as watching paint dry).

So I'm interested in hearing about how everyone feels about Dewhurst and De Jong. What are their strengths, weaknesses, and if you had a choice who would they be replaced with.

GGW ftw

I really can't stand Dewhurst. The few times I've had to watch Phoenix games on TV after not being able to make it to the Stadium, I've got fed up with him by halftime and turned on Piney's radio commentary instead. 

The amount of times De Jong gets things wrong is embarrassing for someone of his position

Portland Timberwolves was my favourite.

I'm generally a very nice and accepting person, but lets be honest, Dewhurst and De Jong and just woeful commentators. Harry Ngata is a slight upgrade to pretty awful. Thank god I go to most games and don't have to listen to their commentary. 

I agree with GGW call. Gordon Irving was always the winner but I guess that's long done.

I did like Mike Cockerill from Australia and could handle him on a weekly basis...

I do like Miles Davis but question his voice being right for TV

Warriors commentating team used to be almost as bad as Dewhurst and De Jong.
This season they got Fox Sports commentator Andrew Voss over for every home game to make the call alongside Darryl Halligan and it's been damn near bearable.
Maybe it's time for an Aussie to come over and team up with Dewhurst for the Phoenix home games? 

Have always thought Mike Cockerill should be the commentator for Phoenix home games. He's a supporter of Nix participation. Guys like him have been doing TV football commentary for decades through SBS before Fox, and call a TV game in their sleep. Dewhurst's Ok on the radio but lack of research lets him down as much as anything. End result is sub standard and does nothing for the Phoenix or football here. As for de Jong. Not his fault he hasn't got the voice for it, but isn't good enough to do it. Cockerill brings his football journo skills to the table, and after about 30 mins of commentary has built in all the latest goss, potential transfers etc, because he pre interviews coaches before each game, and is generally just living and breathing A League all the time. No brainer really. Best analyst here has always been Sumner, by a mile. Others tried just talk fan club stuff, which does nothing for you are trying to work out - like last season - what's going wrong. Our guys will never have enough games to call to get better - fraustrating that it seems like they just rollup and anything's good enough.     

Simon Hill is one of the best.

Simon Hill is good too

Not sure who is worse - Doofie, Harper or Slater

It's the hyperbole that rally ticks me. Based on their commentry you'd think the Phoenix were the next Barca.

Yeah reckon Gordon Glen Watson would be great. Really knowledgeable about the game, appears he does plenty of research, and provides great insight.

Research is key. And not crap research. I just hate irrelevant crap eg the phoenix have never won twice in a row after having two draws in a row or something stupid like that. Dewhurst will latch onto one meaningless stat like that and keep talking about it all game, can be very painful. 

Too fun and devoid of fun. eh?

I hated Dewhurst since the first Phoenix game against Melbourne.  There was a fever game game against the Melbourne fans before the game and he got invited to play.  It was a real jumpers for goalposts game, against some decent lads who were scorchingly hungover, and he spent the whole game shooting from everywhere - basically smashing the ball 15 yards wide, and making some poor lad run 80 meters to fetch it.  He really took the game way too seriously in what turned out to be something like a 12-7 win to us.

To make matters worse, after the game against Melbourne where we came back from 2-0 down with 10 mins to go (in front of 15,000 people) I see him in the pub.  The place is buzzing due to the attendance, the atmosphere and the come back, and he is miserable as anything, going on about how poor we played in the first half, etc.  I remember thinking that if he gets that little enjoyment out of a game like that, he is in completely the wrong job. 

Both beyond terrible. They have shit personalities/no sense of humour or charm, don't give any real football insight and make stupid statements regularly. So they must be very cheap I guess.

It's a shame Piney is on the radio. I'm sure he'd be a much better TV commentator than whats on offer

Dewhurst is awful.

He makes ridiculous comments that are totally out of place. It's obvious he doesn't know much about the game.

Makes watching the Nix on TV a bit hard at times.

@Dewhurst - Go and do the netball...

"65th minute coming up - I have inside word we are about to bring on Daniel - my balls my word"

I'm sick of hearing how much better the Nix are than every team, even in the games where we are awful!

With our commentators opinions anyone would think we should be a Premier League side we are that good!

Ladies and gentlemen, this discussion is all well and good, but if you want the situation to change, then you need to get active...

I asked a producer at SKY why Andrew was commentating, listing the reasons I thought he was sub-standard, and the response was "we don't get much negative feedback about Dewey"... therefore, that suggests that lots of the complaints being made here are not being channeled through to SKY (phone, email, whatever means available)... SKY are most likely going to dismiss comments on a forum as a valid source of feedback, but complaints made straight to them are logged and passed on to the relevant people... if there are enough coming through, then people higher up the food chain begin asking questions...

The production team at SKY are very loyal to the people they use - hence why people like Andrew and Fred are still there, and people like Mark Elrick were on screen for so long in previous years... they are unlikely to make any changes unless there is a genuine reason/pressure to do so... therefore, you need to get active...

Personal insults or stylistic issues will generally be ignored... but things like bias, lack of subject knowledge, or obvious deficiencies in preparation and research are fundamentals in this line of work, and therefore likely to register if raised.

Something else to consider - Andrew, Fred and Heremaia are all Auckland-based, and therefore flown down to Wellington for every match... perhaps a local alternative (such as Jason Pine), or employing a single commentator from Australia (such as Cockerill) makes for a better economic argument for SKY's money men... just a thought...

Get active :)

I wouldnt mind gourdie as a presenter to replace katsanos brings energy. Commentators well the colour man (ngata) needs to be far better and perhaps current. Commentator as suggested an aussie simon hill type 

Most of the Aussie commentators are horrible, they are almost as bad as Dewhurst.

As much as I would like Piney on commentary, TV is a different beast to Radio. You don't have to paint the picture but help provide the narrative to the pictures. Best local option I know is GGW.

When Ifill retires.. he's got a sure future in broadcasting I reckon.

GGW with support from Ifill would be beautiful

What's Muzza doing these days?... would be worth it for the lolz! Cockerill for the commentary, We could have a YF guest sideline eye each game... laugh a minute.

Would still be crap, but at least entertaining!

this, worth noting indeed, if as we expect the commentary on sky for the nix games is that bad then complain about it......otherwise you always have the option of watching the game at the stadium and not watching the replay, or of course listening to piney's commentary on the radio while watching the telly.

Agree that style issues are irrelevant, except for the dreadful "thus so far" cliches and the returned question disease which is still terminal with most Sky analysts in rugby and football.  " looks like the Phoenix are in a bit of trouble here, doesn't it". Drives us nuts - some do it every time they open their mouths. But all this is more a failure of the production crew/director to tell these guys they're doing it. Real problem is the rugby culture at Sky Sport, though that may change with a new guy at the top.

It needs to, as the coverage for the AW's game was embarrassing. Dennis is out of his depth - but would be good doing colour pieces. Suggestion to get Gourdie as an anchor is a good one. He just gets better and better on mainstream media.

De Jong adds no value to the Phoenix commentary - he has a severe conflict of interest - and on those grounds alone should not be doing it. I don't want to hear Dewhurst or de Jong use commentary to tell us 'what great shape NZ Football is in". We all know that NZF has major problems - no money - and likely to be caned away from home in the WC playoffs unless they get Herbert technical help. Also lucky most football media have left them alone after the Oceania tournament tragedy - where NZF did no prep - because it was just Oceania opposition.  

Oz commentators are streets ahead of where we're at. They call TV football in their sleep, and the Phoenix need Cockerill badly. Piney does a great job promoting the Nix and calling their games on radio, but he would struggle in the art of TV Football.