He tells BBC Sport Academy about the best way of following his footsteps into the commentary box.

When did you realise you wanted to become a commentator?

This may sound daft, but I began when I was a little lad of five.

I would sit on my grandfather's lap and when the results came in on a Saturday night, I would do some commentary for him.

Much later I did some work for BBC Merseyside and they asked me to do an audition, which I completely forgot about.

I took a school team to Australia for five weeks and while I was sitting in a Chinese restaurant in Melbourne at midnight, I got a phone call saying would I like the job.

I thought it was a joke and told the caller where to go.

I then realised he was deadly serious!

What is the role of the commentator?

Rugby league is not a national sport, so if a game is being broadcast on national TV there are some in the audience who know little about the game.

But they do enjoy the power, speed and skill.

You need a sense of humour, but also you have to be honest - if something is bad, say it is bad.

Do you have to have a good working knowledge of the game?

You have to know the game, the personalities.

It's about acquiring information, watching lots of matches and reading the papers.

I'm not so much of a statistical commentator, I prefer to tell stories.

I think viewers and listeners are more interested in that.