It is a curiosity that as we move into mid-season of the Warriors' 15th year in the Australian premiership we still do not have a local television comments man.
The North Queensland twang, colloquialisms and rhyming slang sing out as Jason Costigan does his stuff on Sky. He knows the
game well enough and I have no problem with the description - but wouldn't it be nicer to have one of our own?
The knowledgeable input from the likes of former coaches Warren Ryan, Roy Masters and others used by the Australian channels as comments man while Ray Warren and others do the call of play can be extremely valuable in dissecting the game.
There is no reason the local station could not use them, or choose its own Kiwis personality - Owen Wright, who sits next to Radio Sport's excellent game-caller Allen McLaughlin, would be good and McLaughlin himself would do an A1 television call.
Stephen McIvor, who has long been Sky's league frontman, is finally being given a shot at the new Toyota Cup Under-20s competition and on the evidence so far there is no reason he could not graduate up to the NRL, given time to settle into what is not an easy job.
Costigan flies in from Australia for each of the Warriors' home games, as does his offsider Daryl Halligan. His business card lists him as manager of communications and government relations for the J.M. Kelly Group of Companies, which has interests in building, mining, resort and farm management. He is also handling media for the central Queensland bid for an NRL team.
Before him we had Graeme Hughes and Greg Clarke. While Halligan is up with the news regarding players and clubs, he does not have the insight into the game that Wright brings to the radio commentary. Graham Lowe, who worked beside Hughes, was given towards a parochialism that detracted from the message.
It would be nice to have decent analysis in the local lingo instead of dingo.
