Jon Wilkin has urged Luke Keary to head back home if the Catalans Dragons man dislikes playing in Super League has much as he seems to suggest. The Sky Sports pundit’s comments come after an article was published in the Australian press that saw Keary slam Super League and the game in the Northern Hemisphere.
Keary described the competition he plies his trade in as ‘near unwatchable’ and ‘horrendous’ while he also reserved criticism for Sky Sports and other media covering the game.
The Australian, who has played at the very pinnacle of the code with Australia and New South Wales, joined Catalans over the off-season after penning a two-year deal with the club. However, in the 12 appearances he has made, he has failed to stand out.
Head coach Steve McNamara claimed the comments were part of a wider interview when speaking after the game at Magic Weekend on Sunday and suggested they had been taken slightly out of context. However, that hasn’t stopped Keary from attracting huge amounts of criticism, with Wilkin becoming the latest to speak out on the Australian’s quotes.
Wilkin made the point that Keary should be doing all he can to promote the competition he is being paid to play in, while also hitting back and using the half-back’s own words against him.
Super League pundit Jon Wilkin slams Luke Keary comments
“Can you imagine if he had been here two years ago? Maybe three years ago, what would he have said then? If anything things are way better, all the games are on TV, you can stream all the games, there’s probably more content out there than there ever has been,” Wilkin said on The Bench about Keary’s comments.
“When I read what he said, I was frustrated, I was angry at first because he’s been here for a very short period of time. I think he’s been an exceptional player, achievements are unbelievable.
“He’s come over here and just to give some context, I think it’s safe to say his time in Super League hasn’t gone particularly well.”
He continued: “Some of what he says I think is really valid but I think it’s super f—ing obvious. The NRL is better than Super League. That’s not a shock to anybody. The NRL has more resources than Super League. That’s not a shock to anybody. Channel 9 and Fox have more coverage of the game than Sky. Of course.
“So a lot of what he said is just obvious. So that’s when it becomes a case of why are you saying it? And if he’s having such a bad time over here when he’s on marquee money and he’s not lit the competition up, then just go home.
“What annoyed me about it was he’s saying it as though we don’t know the issues that we’ve got. The issues that we have as a sport over here we talk about all the time.
“The thing that annoyed me was about “unwatchable” and “horrendous”. I use this analogy, it’s like Luke Keary is an actor and there’s a film out at the cinemas, and he’s one of the main actors in it, and he’s telling everybody not to go and watch it because the film’s crap. In other sports it wouldn’t happen. I think he’s been stitched up.
“He’s taking big money at a club and he has a squad number and he’s playing and he should be one of our marquee players that is leading the way, championing and pushing things and trying to improve things and I don’t think he’s hit the mark in any way with his comments. But he’s entitled to his opinion as well.
“If he thinks that he shouldn’t be vilified for saying it but he should be held to account for saying it as well.
“His performance against Leigh, that was unwatchable. I watched him play against Leigh away and he dropped the ball six times. It’s like he had blown up marigolds for hands.”
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Eric T Cat
May 8, 2025 at 9:56 am
Thing is his comments on coverage of the sport are spot on. The game is played nigh on in secret. Your national newspaper, paper or electronic version, will have next to nothing in it. If it does it will be the same story, word for word. You won’t see much, if any, local advertising for matches. You won’t see an advert on the TV. Sky coverage is a piece of artificial turf pitch side for the pundits to stand on, hardly the full suite given over to the lowliest football coverage. I don’t know how it compares to Union coverage, I refuse to watch inferior drivel, plus it sends me to sleep. The commentators have thankfully only just stopped saying “For those of you watching for the first time”, we’re one of the sports with the longest coverage on British TV, and nobody is left alive from the sports foundation, nor sure there are any alive from when they dropped Northern Football Union.
We have the superior product, even crowds have picked up, but fair and equitable reporting is a joke. Cup semi finals this weekend, nothing on the BBC about it, nothing on Sky, not much here, the Hull KR vs Catalans Dragons game will be played in York, at an 8500 seater stadium. That’s an insult to the sport, it’s embarrassing! The semi finals, the best side at the moment versus a rapidly improving side? They can’t sell out an 8500 seater stadium ? You can guarantee the BBC will twist the knife on that! The other game, Leigh vs Warrington, what will that attract? Two great sides, Leigh never afraid to play entertaining rugby, hard defence, flowing attack, against a Warrington side who are one minute down and out, next minute world beaters. They’ve served up good games already, in the sunshine, firm ground, this should be a fast, hard fought, flowing game of flying wingers in at the corner, and if you can’t get excited about that have your loved ones contact the undertaker, you might be dead. Yet, despite that, 10,000? 15,000? I suspect about 9,000, I hope I’m wrong. We should be filling the big stadiums with games like these! People should be excited, there should be a tension in the air, teasing out the possibility of a Leigh vs Hull KR final, in which case I’m hiring a hitman to take out any Leigh player with the vaguest hint of the ability to kick a drop goal, not again! Not a third time! But, only if you read this comment, on this niche website, the RFL aren’t promoting the games, the BBC aren’t promoting the games, there’s nothing in Hull about it.
Luke Keary has a point.
On the product on the field, he’s wrong. There isn’t a big enough player pool of UK, French players, but imports lift the sport. The quality is there, as you can almost make a full team up from NRL based first team players, if they weren’t good enough they wouldn’t be in the squads, the NRL has the talent pool, and can be ruthless, as Dom Young has sadly found out. What has he done?
Johnny
May 8, 2025 at 7:09 pm
Superb letter wilkin wants to fk off to aus an take all the clowns running our game with him
Lover boy straight out of college games gone thanks to these idiots
Andy smith
May 8, 2025 at 10:08 am
Wish Wilkins would do one with rest of our commentators all boring
Johnny
May 8, 2025 at 7:04 pm
Spot on Luke go on and lift the chalenge cup for catalan
Why because the referees and the bent corrupt rl have done there upmost to get kr there
Kendle l moore Cullen (do the players from kr ever get banned last three years NO
Did kendle and moore beat Penrith v Wigan yes
Corrupt fk clowns wilkins one of them
70 yrs a supporter do you think any of these bent bastards can fool me 😂😂
These bent Bastds are working hard trying to get hull fc out of the play offs
Catalan will beat the dobbins if moore and kuntle are not involved
Anonymous
May 8, 2025 at 7:06 pm
I think its you wilkin that hes talking about,only thing that comes out of your mouth is garbage