Sky Commentary Team

Dewhurst just gets worse and worse. "Brisbane roar should cut up that patch off turf and take it with them to brisbane"

I hate it how Dewhurst tries to shout but doesn't shout.... he sort of.... i dunno....i can't explain.

Dewhurst puts me to sleep when I listen to him. He has the most monotonous dull voice of any commentator I've ever hear. He is also bias against the Nix and often complain about the crowds etc. He rarely calls the game, instead he's always rambling on about some useless crap. I wish the FFA would send one of the Aussie commentators out to call our matches. They are far better and much more exciting to listen to. Simon Hill, Harper, Robbie Slater etc. Also, can we get our own Mel Mcglouglin?

For a monotone monotonous dull voice you'd pretty struggling to find one any better than Fred De Jongs. Bland is another term one could use. The closest I've heard to him is Grant Fox.

Could hire Nufc to run silent commentary via onscreen gifs, and it would be more entertaining 

made me laugh when dewhurst admitted he knew nothing about Hicks / riera etc but still kept talking rubbish in the previous roar game. Do some bloody research :/

I bet Dewhurst does come here from time to time to read the comments. I bet Herbert comes here and most the Nix players would have had a cheeky browse. The whole of the NZF would check in and as we all know most of the football media writers come to YF. It is like the only footballing forum in New Zealand that I know of and you can bet your life that many people involved in professional football within New Zealand would be lurking around. I wonder what Dewhurst would think if he saw the comments. Hell, imagine how Lia would feel!! 

GGW!

I bet everyone has come on here for a quick look. They might not admit it but hey..... It's natural curiosity.

that tyler commentary piece was amazing f-mac, just amazing

not a fan of tyler myself but admittedly in the big moments he delivers beautifully

Whatever happened to Paul Parker ????? SKY dropped the ball there.

I wonder if Ifill could provide decent commentary now he's sidelined for a few weeks

Dewhurst is just bloody awful. Fred has some nouse but has no voice for tv.

Gus Finker...

Something has to happen soon. I don't think I have ever heard a positive word said about Dewhursts commentary

At least more Harry Ngata. He's better than the other two 

"Seriously. Iffy sounds very cogent and smart when he's interviewed. Piney's got passion. Both have the advantage of not being Harry Ngata. Is there somewhere we can whine to Sky Sport about this? "

Passion sadly isn't enough. Piney does a good job promoting the game through ad hoc radio commentaries, but would be exposed by TV, as it's an art form. It's either 'dial a pom' or do what I've been suggesting for some years - get Mike Cockerill in for Phoenix games. No brainer. Phoenix can't afford to have their TV product coming up so short. Cockerill's done thousands of games over the years way back through SBS. That's why he sounds so good. As for comments - IIfill would be great, but Sky couldn't afford him. And why should Ifill sell himself short at this stage, when there's such doubt about his career.

Na Piney would be good. He has a very good understanding of the game and is also very knowledgable with regards to the players and the league. He wouldn't wander too much from whats happening in the game itself either because he'll still have that from radio. Him and Gordon Glen Watson would be the dream team. GGW showed how good he was in the Oceania games. Ifill could be good for a guest stint but he might be better off keeping away until his career is done.

Mike Cockerill started covering football for Sydney Morning Herald way back when in the mid-eighties. I used to meet him then at the occasional NSL clubs "meet the team" functions and he was knowledgeable and interested in fans' ideas then. He moved on from SMH in recent years as he wanted more "hands-on" involvement. He is one of the few Australian-born and -bred 'proper' expert journos in terms of football (Ray Gatt would be another) who are not a former player or expat.

Piney would be a massive upgrade on Dewhurst. I do have one fear though and its the same thing that happened to Dewhurst.

When you transition from radio to TV, you actually have a picture that the viewers can see so there is no need to fill dead air when pictures will tell the story i.e. you can over talk it.

I hope they give him a chance and he rocks it.

Love Paul Ifill's work, but can't see a currently contracted Nix player getting a gig in the commentary box doing calls on his own team. I don't expect Kiwi commentators to be exactly objective when calling Nix games, but it would put Iffy in a difficult situation. Once his career is over, it might be different but I can't see him being neutral and critical, for understandable reasons.

Surely he'd be fine as a 'colour commentator' (racially charged pun not intended) 

Very common in most sports to have injured players come in on guest stints

Just get him in at half time to do a "how do you think the first half went, what can be done better blahblahblah".

Just crowd noise would be so much better. They actually made the game less exciting, by dribbling on during the exciting bits and not calling the game. 

Nobody, and I said so earlier in that post. I do like commentators to be able to critcise when needed. Don't think Iffy is in a position to do that at this stage, which is the point I was making.

As I posted last September, the producers at SKY don't feel there is a problem with their commentary team, as they receive very little in the way of negative feedback... so if you want to effect change, you need to address the source... Andrew is chosen by someone else to be the commentator, so it's that decision maker you need to get your point across to...

I've never been asked to do TV and I'm not sure I'd want to. Firstly, tonya may well be right; I might not be any good at it. It's way different from radio (I'd imagine) and for what it's worth, I think Andrew does a good job - way better than I could for sure.

But the major reason it doesn't really appeal is that I'd have to leave the radio commentary box and therefore not work with Chotey and McHardy any more. Those guys are a bloody joy to call games with and our bosses allow us to bring passion and colour to our commentaries that we perhaps wouldn't be able to on other mediums. I know we are not everyone's cup of tea and that's fine ... but we are dedicated to delivering what our bosses want from us - excitement, enjoyment, vivid colour and a dose of parochialism. 

I simply love doing the radio commentaries and I feel very lucky to be able to do what I do and hope to continue for some time yet. God bless the Phoenix for the opportunities they have given me.

Cheers, Piney

+1

bring your mates Piney ! I think your commentaries have to be a reason that I'm Phoenix till I die as I couldn't watch the game on TV for the first season, but didn't miss a call.

Also come and visit a bit more- YF lacking in its senior pros a bit...

Jason, you and te other two make for a tight team. I enjoy listening to you all. Good to see Chotey disagreeing from time to time as it keeps it honest and sincere. None of you are afraid to tell the truth and lay blame where it needs to given.

As for TV, I do have to disagree with you. Dewhurst really is as bad as everyone suggests. I'd change Freds name from De Jong to De Bland as it describes his abilities perfectly.

Ps: Answer your FB messages! ;)

Piney wouldn't do it. He works for the Radio Network.

I think we are all talking 'perfect world' here. Untimately I think nearly anyone would be better than the current Sky commentators. I need to take some time to contribute some 'noise' in Sky TV's direction and I suggest everyone else does the same

GGW is the obvious choice, especially since he already does TV broadcast work for OFC. He makes completely lop sided games (such as 10-0) sound exciting and has a wonderful football knowledge, and I would love to see that applied to the A-League. Piney is the voice of football in this country, but I like to think that GGW is the voice of television broadcast football.