LAST week’s televised rugby league coverage could have been dubbed ‘a tale of two cameras’.

On Thursday we had the experimental use of the player cam strapped to the concept’s guinea pig Kurt Gidley but on Saturday we were back to the old school, one man and his camera, at Oldham for the Challenge Cup tie against Haydock.

Anyone who reads my column will not need two guesses as to which one this old dinosaur preferred.

Sport and television are both hugely competitive arenas, and it is understandable that both are constantly looking to innovate as a way of bringing non-aficionados into the game.

The player-cam experiment last about half an hour before being withdrawn due to technical difficulties.

Let’s be honest, even without those difficulties, it did not offer a great deal for the viewer.

It was more a pointless distraction, a hindrance more than a help which did nothing to show the game in the raw.

And for Gidley that experience must have been even worse.

Aside from the comfort aspect, he may as well have walked around the pitch a bullseye target on his chest, not that a fired-up Gareth Hock needed any extra motivation to put venom into his tackles.

Hopefully this experiment will go the same way as the margin-meter and countdown clock and we can concentrate on the actual action on the field.

And while we are at it, my other bug-bear is BBC’s way of interviewing players on the pitch, walking among them as they warm up and then catching them for interview when they run off at half time.

Players should be left to do their own thing during a match without someone sticking a mic and camera in their faces.

Of course, TV pays the money and invariably the wages of said players, but is there not enough out there in the 80 minutes to broadcast and package?

In rugby league, most of the time, the simplicity of the game sells itself to the public.

Having been brought up on BBC2 Floodlit Trophy, invariably taking place on really bad midwinter Tuesday nights with floodlights emitting less wattage than a dozen church altar candles, I always preferred a simple format.

We got a taste of that again on the red button BBC on Saturday – and in previous rounds – when Haydock travelled to Stalybridge.

Everything that made me pick rugby league over football in the 1970s was displayed there at Bower Fold on Saturday.

A down to earth, tough but skilful game without any frills or cynical play was there to marvel. You had to watch it all – no 12 action replays after a try. (Although it does allow to wind back a watch again.) We even had our own local underdogs getting an all too rare day in the spotlight.

To put the cherry on top, The Yickers even showed that it is still possible to put on a set piece from a scrum and score from it.

If the innovation for player-cam gets the thumbs down, the red button Challenge Cup coverage has really set the scene for the rest of the competition.

Even when the camera man has to bring his chamois leather on it added to it, rather than took away from the experience.

And it could not have not been better timed in setting the stage for the introduction of the top flight clubs into the game’s most prestigious tournament.

The Challenge Cup has suffered since the game went to summer, even more so since the final was shifted to August.

But in terms of format, this system has been spot on with the way it gives every chance to make progress without suffering too severe a mullering.

All that they need to do now is bring the rounds closer together and move the final back to the end of May and that would be a good job done.