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.
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.