It's an interesting question. Traditionally, Stevo and Eddie have filled two distinct roles. Eddie is the neutral host and game-caller, while Stevo is the pundit and colour. Eddie is always at his worst when he tries to express his own view on things, and sounds like a moaning old feller down the pub, and his grasp of the match commentary is now starting to slip, as you can hear him reaching for names and not finding them sometimes. Stevo used to be good at his job, but is now entirely on an auto-pilot of clichés and rhubarb.
If you were doing a straight swap, you'd need another game caller and another pundit. Sky have crowded the commentary box though, and created a third role - the technical expert, whose job it is to explain the finer points. At present, the list goes:
Host/callerEddie
Bill Arthur
Angela
Carney
PunditStevo
Phil Clarke (used to be a technical explainer, but increasingly in my view in the pundit role with his willingness to criticise).
Barry
Terry
Carney
Technical/explainerJon Wells
Stuart Cummings
I think Wells has the
technical side sewn up. He's excellent at it, and with Phil Clarke as back-up, that position is covered for the forseeable future. I would get rid of Cummings straight away. He adds nothing which any half-competent observer of the game couldn't offer, and I'd expect a decent caller/pundit duo to be able to explain the rules without calling on Cummings. Not least because, to my intense annoyance, Cummings often gets calls wrong initially!
The
Caller/Host role may need to be split. Carney is their best host by some distance. Professional, smooth, and easy on the eye for the ladies (so the wife tells me), but I don't know if he's going to fit into the match narrator role. For that, the skills of Angela and Bill might still be required.
The
Pundit is a role which Phil Clarke is clearly adopting as his own. His comments are increasingly direct. He used to avoid any criticism of players or tactics, but he is now directly critical (and complimentary) of individuals and teams, which is a key part of the pundit role, in providing judgment to colour the neutrality of the match caller. I think Carney is also a good pundit for the same reason, and I can imagine them swapping.
So I'd see the future as Bill/Angela taking on the Eddie match-calling role, Carney taking on the Eddie hosting role, with some punditry during the match, and Clarke taking on the main pundit role, while Wells continues as the technical expert.
Terry and Barry are genuinely surplus to requirements, and I'm not entirely sure why Sky keep them on. They're far too close to the Eddie Waring style of knockabout tomfoolery which portrayed RL as not a serious sport for so long.
