Super League best pundit quotes as Leeds Rhinos, Hull FC, Jake Connor and John Asiata slammed

Rugby League fans will be more than accustomed to settling down in front of the TV on Thursday and Friday nights to watch Super League on Sky Sports. The competition has made those TV slots its own and this season, more games than ever have been shown on the platform.

Every Super League game will be broadcast on Sky Sports this season allowing fans to keep across every pass, tackle and try from the first very game of the campaign to the Grand Final in October. With six games a week to cover, there’s plenty of work for the Sky’s panel of pundits and experts with the likes of Jon Wilkin, Sam Tomkins, Jon Wells and Barrie McDermott featuring on a weekly basis.

With that in mind, here’s a look at some of the best quotes those pundits have come out with this season.

‘Drifting like an empty crisp packet’

Hull FC’s season hasn’t exactly gone to plan, it’s fair to say. The Black and Whites currently sit 11th in the table after winning just two games all season. Their early season form prompted changes at the club with Tony Smith being dismissed and Wilkin offered a pretty damning verdict on the position the East Yorkshire club find themselves in.

Speaking in April, Wilkin said: “There’s a mismatch between how Hull FC supporters and rugby league fans generally view them as a big club – and how Hull FC actually perceive themselves. I wouldn’t say that they perceive themselves as a big club anymore. Financially, that’s reflected in the playing roster and for Hull FC it’s not necessarily a coaching problem.

“It’s more about having a substantial backer and a serious level of support behind them to bankroll a team that’s decent enough to go on and win something. Tony Smith’s record speaks for itself – he’s been one of the most successful coaches of the modern era. Changing coaches might get a slightly better performance from the team but there’s a bigger issue at Hull FC.

“They can cover it up by sacking the coach, but they need to decide whether they want to be competitive or not. Until Hull FC give a coach the resources to compete, I don’t think they will.”

He added: “They’re drifting like an empty crisp packet across a car park.”

‘How sad is that?’

Leeds Rhinos‘ season hasn’t been quite as bad as Hull’s but the West Yorkshire outfit have still underwhelmed and Wilkin felt the need to take a swipe at their pack after watching them lose to Hull FC in June.

“One of the issues for me, I look at the pack and it was soft,” he said. “People will throw this accusation at me, that I was a soft player or whatever people want to say at me but I would lick my lips playing against that pack, the Leeds pack,” Wilkin said.

“I would fly out the line and try and biff Mik Oledzki just because I know nothing’s coming back at me. And how sad is that for me to say?

“I had tough guys in my team who would just blow them away.”

‘He’s not been watching Super League’

Leeds appointed Brad Arthur last week after making the decision to part ways with Rohan Smith and the Australian will take charge of his first game at Headingley this weekend. Tomkins, though, doesn’t believe he’ll be able to drag the Rhinos into the top six with 10 games remaining.

“That squad is underperforming,” he said. “That’s given a squad that if you look at, when it was the start of the year, I said they were going to be in the top four. They have assembled a great group, they have just not performed on the field. I think they are underperforming, in terms of they have got quality players, they are just not doing their job.

“They have got the squad to do it, but I just don’t think they can do it. I don’t they they will be able to perform against any of the top sides. I just can’t see them getting there, getting to that top six, no matter how good Brad Arthur is. It’s too short of a window.

“Brad Arthur doesn’t know this team. He’s not been watching Super League the first half of this season. He won’t know half of his own squad. They have all got a blank slate.”

‘He doesn’t want to play’

One of the great disappointments this season has been the form of Jake Connor, who has struggled to find form with Huddersfield Giants. Speaking after watching the Giants lose to Warrington earlier this month, Wilkin agreed with Brian Carney’s notion that Connor ‘wasn’t trying’.

“Yeah, for sure,” Wilkin said. “Or, he’s not understanding what his job is but for me, he’s played fullback long enough that he absolutely knows what his job is.

“Jake Connor doesn’t want to play. He doesn’t want to be out there. He’s playing but he’s not there. It’s the only time I’ve heard a coach say, ‘what I want to see from Jake is the effort areas and the team first mentality’. Well, why is he in the team?”

‘Man of Steel-elect’

Marc Sneyd has been one of the stars of the season and his performances in a Salford Red Devils shirt currently have him at the top of the Man of Steel leaderboard, alongside Matt Dufty. Jon Wells believes the England international is getting better with age.

“The 2024 season has also seen some players in career-best form,” he said. “Marc Sneyd, at 33 years of age, is looking like the Man of Steel-elect at present – and his performances continue to really impress.”

‘He’s like a circus clown’

Wilkin was hugely critical of Leigh Leopards’ John Asiata earlier in the season after being sin-binned after just 41 seconds for a dangerous tackle. Asiata received criticism last season after inflicting injury on two St Helens players using the same technique which prompted a rule change.

“I can’t believe he’s come into this game and done that,” Wilkin said in March. “After what happened I can’t believe he’s come into the game and even that’s come to his mind to attempt to do a tackle like that, whether he believes that’s legal or not the rules have changed.

“It’s almost identical to the tackles that ended two players’ seasons last year. My question is if you’re coming to this ground today against the team you’ve done that to to do that you’re trying to incite a reaction an aggressive reaction and he’s trying to wind people up he’s walking off the field waving to the fans he’s like a circus clown, that’s what he was like a pantomime villain.”

‘In a holding pattern’

To say Jon Wilkin was less than enthused by Castleford Tigers’ off-season recruitment would be an understatement. Here’s what he had to say about the work done at Wheldon Road leading into the 2024 campaign.

“I could be disingenuous and stand here and say that I’m excited by what they’ve signed, but I’m not,” Wilkin said. “I’m also not too concerned by what they’ve lost either, Gareth Widdop and Greg Eden have moved on to Halifax.

“I think Cas are in a holding pattern under Craig Lingard. The one shining light for them is Danny McGuire. It blows my mind that he left Hull KR for Castleford. There is a story there that nobody knows. That’s the key piece of recruitment there and maybe he can develop some of those younger players.”