Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin has been forced into an apology after labelling groundskeepers as “weird” and claiming that “you have to be a psycho to do it”.
The comments from Wilkin came on ‘The Bench’ podcast that he hosts alongside Jenna Brooks in which a segment sees Brooks, Wilkin and a guest place facets of rugby league ‘on the bench’, meaning to remove something from the sport.
This week, Wilkin picked out groundsmen as he ridiculed the profession and “how precious” they are over their work.
Jon Wilkin said: “For me, it’s groundsmen and how precious they are about the pitch. I walked across the pitch at Wigan the other week, I was in trainers and I’m 85 kilos, and I walked across the corner of the pitch and the groundsman was scowling at me.
“I was like, ‘Mate, you’ve got essentially 30 cows about to run on the pitch, what damage am I going to do?’ Why are they so protective of the pitches?
“Plus, you’ve got to be weird to be a groundsman. They’re all weird, aren’t they? It’s psychopathic, you have to be a psycho to do it.”
Wilkin’s comments caught the attention of numerous Super League groundsmen and others in the profession causing immense backlash.
Jon Wilkin slammed for ‘disrespectful’ comments
Credit: Imago Images
One of the first to call Jon Wilkin out on his comments was Ryan Goulding, the groundsman at Leeds Rhinos, with Goulding responding to Sky Sports Rugby League X profile with footage of Wilkin’s comments.
He posted: “Pretty disrespectful and dismissive of one of the hardest working & skilled professions in sport, especially through all the levels in RL. More than welcome to work with us and come see what we actually do anytime.”
That post was seen a whopping 566,000 times and obviously by plenty in the profession, leading to a tirade of criticism towards Jon Wilkin.
Gary Barwell, Head of Sports Turf at Edgbaston, posed: “This is without doubt the most disgusting TV I’ve seen about our industry so I’d like to ask the two clowns why we all have to stop work to let them talk. Truly awful.”
Hull KR’s groundsman, Liam Bashford, also chimed in: “At Hull KR we have 14 teams who train and play across 3 pitches that are looked after by 1 man… me. This is the thanks you get from those “promoting” the game.”
Pretty disrespectful and dismissive of one of the hardest working & skilled professions in sport, especially throughout all the levels in RL.
More than welcome to work with us and come see what we actually do anytime 👍 pic.twitter.com/sw1j3gCgrL
— Ryan Golding (@ryangolding_) August 21, 2024
They were just three of the leading figures in the industry to call out Jon Wilkin, something that plenty of fans and others did too and that forced Wilkin to share an apology on his Instagram profile.
Posting on his Instagram story, Wilkin said: “I’m sorry for the words I used to describe groundskeeper on The Bench pod this week. It was a light-hearted conversation and I genuinely didn’t mean to cause offence to anyone.”
There was also a statement from the Grounds Management Association in which they made it clear they had spoken with the RFL, Sky Sports and Jon Wilkin in which they called for their Chief Operating Officer, Jason Booth who was formerly a Leeds Rhinos groundsman, to appear on the podcast.
You can see their full statement below.
The Grounds Management Association has issued a statement in response to the recent comments made on Sky Sports’ ‘The Bench’ podcast. pic.twitter.com/fzv1XiIXBw
— Grounds Management Association (@thegma_) August 22, 2024
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