Channel 4 has been a brilliant addition to Super League. Their coverage has been loved since their first game in Round One as they brought to viewers a scintillating clash between Leeds and Warrington.
With a superb list of commentators, recurring pundits and guest pundits like Adam Hills, Helen Skelton, award nominated Danika Priim and the likes of Leon Pryce and Sam Tomkins, they received great reviews all season.
They even got to show two play-off games prior to producing a brilliant Grand Final Uncovered show a week after the decider.
One of the most interesting insights came from the man who refereed the Grand Final between St Helens and Leeds, Liam Moore.
Speaking on Channel 4 he revealed what it’s like to referee a Grand Final: “The big games that you want to be involved in. The big games for the players are the big games for the refs as well. Big atmosphere, big crowd. Should be a great game.
“I pack my back religiously to make sure I’ve not missed anything, my cards, my whistle, my boots, everything.”
When asked if he does any special preparation for games like this such as rewatching their games, he said: “We just know, we’ve refereed them that much over the years that we know what they’re about and what they’re going to bring.”
Meanwhile, England skipper and four-time Grand Final winner with Wigan, Sam Tomkins gave the same kind of insight from a player’s perspective: “When you play in a Grand Final, you’ve been preparing for it since November last year. When you’re doing your pre-season and you’re training, running up hills in the rain, you’re doing it for nothing else other than to be on this field.
“From a mental side of things, you’ve been preparing for a long time and on the day the difficult thing is keeping it as normal as possible. The danger can be letting the event change what you’ve been doing all year.”
