Our game is crying out for some decent, in-depth and thoughtful commentary. At the moment this podcast is little more than a vanity project. I generally like all these guys, but sorry, this show is repetitive, unimaginative and self-indulgent. Listening to JK and Goldie bicker over the same things every week is tedious, and that is being generous. Jeff Wilson can’t even let someone else finish a sentence.
There are so many things to talk about in our game, but if these guys are not covering the same ground over and over, they spend two weeks arguing over their fantasy franchises. The show needs some structure and ideas, or it will never be anything more than this. Why not have interviews with players, get listener questions, have experts on to talk about the laws, tactics, coaching, refereeing. I would dearly love to hear some technical analysis, conversations about the different ways to break down different styles of defence. Conversations about rules that might be changed to open up the game. If you want to educate the (frankly absurd) subsection of fans who are complaining the game is soft, get someone in to talk about why we are working so hard on tackle height. Get insights on the state of the game at different levels, or find out what’s happening with the 12s proposal. It goes on and on, there is so much that could be talked about. I mean, these guys must have epic connections in the game, why not use some of them to deliver some decent content. The Aotearoa Rugby pod has shown what is possible when you have somebody putting good questions to knowledgeable respondents. It’s not perfect, but it is light years ahead of this.
