Eddie and Steve

[Ed Osmond]

Hi, new to the site. Wigan fan for 20 years. Can anyone tell me why Eddie and Stevo hate Wigan so much and love Saints? Commentary on tonight's game v Wire was unreal.
Ed

[Kaii]

Voss is way better

[Ed Osmond]

Double winners last year. And yet not even considered to win anything this season. I know we have lost Sam, Pat, Mossop etc bit that prediction is disrespectful no.

[RJ]

Voss is way better

Dross is way better ! :exc:

[cpwigan]

Hi, new to the site. Wigan fan for 20 years. Can anyone tell me why Eddie and Stevo hate Wigan so much and love Saints? Commentary on tonight's game v Wire was unreal.
Ed

Ed, Stevo went to Aus to play for Penrith in the 70's. At the same time so did Bill Ashurst from Wigan. Much to the bemusement / amusement of their Australian teammates, the two were constantly at loggerheads and it reached such a childish level that Stevo would not pass to Bill. Bill eventually returned home but made such an impact he was selected for the all time Penrith XIII. Stevo stayed, retired, worked on Aus RL radio; bought a train, filled it with RL memorabilia taking it across Australia. SKY eventually brought him back and he and Eddie have remained too long sadly. The Best British commentator I can recall was Clive Tyldsley alongside Brian Smith when ITC/Granada briefly showed RL in the very late 80's / early 90's. Yorkshire TV tried Scrumdown but that was fairly naff.

Throw in Stevo being a Yorkshireman together with his hatred of Wigan legend Bill (he still hates him today) and you have why he is against Wigan.

[Kittwazzer]

Hi, new to the site. Wigan fan for 20 years. Can anyone tell me why Eddie and Stevo hate Wigan so much and love Saints? Commentary on tonight's game v Wire was unreal.
Ed

Ed, Stevo went to Aus to play for Penrith in the 70's. At the same time so did Bill Ashurst from Wigan. Much to the bemusement / amusement of their Australian teammates, the two were constantly at loggerheads and it reached such a childish level that Stevo would not pass to Bill.

Finish the tale off CP. When they packed down for a scrum, Bill cleaned out his hooker (Stevo) from second row and he had to be taken off. Penrith went on to win. Ashurst later apologised to the coach who said "You can knock him out every match if it means we win!"!

[stevethegas]

The answer Ed, is the colour of glasses you look through. I don't share your view that "Eddie and Steve hate Wigan". To say it smacks of the blinkered paranoia that is every true fan's birthright. It's just the same in every club in every sport. Unless the commentators are falling over themselves with drooling praise, they're anti us, biased, all wrong etc. Except probably they're not. They probably just tell it like it is more than we want to hear.

[Mike]

The answer Ed, is the colour of glasses you look through. I don't share your view that "Eddie and Steve hate Wigan". To say it smacks of the blinkered paranoia that is every true fan's birthright. It's just the same in every club in every sport. Unless the commentators are falling over themselves with drooling praise, they're anti us, biased, all wrong etc. Except probably they're not. They probably just tell it like it is more than we want to hear.

Personally I agree with this mostly. I do think sometime there is bias, but basically every club in the league will think that the commentators are baised against their club and pro the clubs they dislike the most. Its par for the course.

If you look at the personnel, Clarke and Carney, O'Connor, McDermott and Tomkins have all played for Wigan to a greater and lesser extent so we are well represented in the coverage recently. Sometimes they may go so far out of the way to remove their bias that they come across biased against us.

[slimshady]

The answer Ed, is the colour of glasses you look through. I don't share your view that "Eddie and Steve hate Wigan". To say it smacks of the blinkered paranoia that is every true fan's birthright. It's just the same in every club in every sport. Unless the commentators are falling over themselves with drooling praise, they're anti us, biased, all wrong etc. Except probably they're not. They probably just tell it like it is more than we want to hear.

I think your wrong they are biased, so are most of the commentators because they know it gets a reaction and thats why we all talk about during the week.
After hearing the commentary over the weekend on the 9's competition over in NZ it highlights the gulf in class inbetween the RL and the commentary. No stupid gimmiky graphics showing stupid stats that nobody is interested in and genuine enthusiastic blokes talking about the game they obviously love, telling it how it is.
Its a fantastic concept that superleague should definately get behind instead of the magic weekend. Its a pity the NRL wouldnt let Wigan enter because that would have been a great spectacle which if SL adopted the same comp, it could invite an NRL team over to the UK.

[Mike]

We did 9s. Did you notice - no? Not suprised, no-one else did either, certainly not the media. We did it in the same way we do most things - with so many compromises that the whole thing has no chance of succeeding before we even begin. The whole thing was basically a mid-week under 19s comp.

If the magic weekend had been a 9s comp with regulations specifying the bets squad must play, then maybe we'd have had something worth promoting.

The last time we did something like that was the transition to the GF. And we're watering down the playoff concept so much now its damaging the league and the playoffs.

We need someone at the RFL with vision and commitment to take through an idea that may just have a positive effect. The 12 to 8 split won't last more than 2 seasons IMO.