Jason Costigan hits out after SKY axing
Dumped SKY rugby league caller Jason Costigan has broken his silence after finally being told officially of his sacking seven weeks after it was revealed by the Sunday Star-Times.
The Star-Times broke the news on December 12 that after a decade commentating on Warriors and Kiwis matches for Sky Sport, Costigan would be replaced by Stephen McIvor.
But Costigan wasn't formally told the news until he took a call from Sky's executive producer for league, Tui McKendrick, last Tuesday.
And while he knew his "professional death warrant" was coming, Costigan was still shocked and hurt by the news.
He refused to offer details of his conversation with McKendrick, whom he doesn't blame for the confusion, but said Sky's handling of the decision had been "very poor".
"It's bad enough to get flicked but to have it reported in the press a couple of weeks prior to Christmas before being personally advised is extremely disappointing," Costigan told the Star-Times from the Central Queensland hamlet of Taroom where he was hosting a fundraiser for flood victims. "I actually only found out officially last Tuesday just six weeks before the season starts.
"I don't want to tip the bucket on anyone because I love the people I worked with, and I think they know that ... but it's like being a kid and having all your toys taken away from you. I am terribly disappointed with the way it's panned out, and that's an understatement."
Costigan said he had turned down a "pretty wonderful opportunity, career-wise" at the end of last season because he wanted to continue commentating.
"I still have every intention of calling football this year, whether people like it or not, but I am not at liberty to say where," Costigan said. "I am not oblivious to the fact that I am not everyone's cup of tea, but I have my own individual way of calling it, and I call it the way I see it. I did my best to please my audiences both locally and abroad, remembering they could be watching in Manurewa, Maitland or Muttaburra. Sadly, those days are gone."
Costigan began his broadcast career in northern Queensland in the late 1980s, and has also worked in print, radio, media management for the Bulldogs and Bradford Bulls, as a federal government advisor and leading the Central Queensland NRL bid proposal.
McKendrick didn't return calls for comment.
