I thought I was the only one who'd noticed that omnipresent shirt. I hope they wash it.

Haha, that is a pet hate of mine too.

I don't mind the bloke, he is enthusiastic and obviously loves the club....Whether he can take Wigan forward, then only time will tell.

However, if you ever want to see the reason why our sport gets little coverage and is taken so lightly by the southern-biased media, then just take a look at the after match interviews with Wane and Gareth Hock.... Both they, and many in our game, completely fit the image that many neutrals have of our sport, that it is played, coached and watched by thick, badly educated northerners - Christ, Hock could barely string two words together.

Yes, its a very snobby point I make, but that's the whole thing with the whole RL and RU divide.....One is played by well educated toffs, of limited talent, whose mates all work in the media - The other is played by lower, working-class lads whose sole talent lies in their rugby playing.....Thus, the media just make fun of the less bright and laud their educational equals, because, ultimately, its a carry on from their schooldays, when the not-so-bright kids would get picked on for their inabilities.

We can talk all we like about how good our game is, and wanting to spread our game nationally, but as long as the likes of Wane, Hock, Westwood, Peacock, etc are put forward as the face of our game, then we will forever be patronised by the media, who prefer the eduacted PR spin of inferior sports like RU, Golf and F1, over actual entertainment like Rugby League.

He's an easy figure to take the mick out of, but he seems like a genuine guy and loves RL, that makes him ok in my eyes.

Excellent post.

not really, it's a well made point but hardly the reason RL is less popular than RU.

It's down to history, prejudice and the fact that RU was and still is nationwide, RL was and pretty much still is the north of england , mainy the M62 corridor.

Looking at the international game, which is where a sport is showcased and we in RL are an utter joke, RU is definately not.

Back to Wane, seems to be a good coach so far if you can look past his shortcomings.

Love how a wigan fan thinks RL lacks characters, er no it doesn't. It's just that you are trying to draw a positive from the fact your coach comes across and an ape. Seriously don't worry about it, it's his coaching ability that matters.

At this stage it's an outside bet that he lasts past this season in post, and even longer odds he gets anywhere near international level (apart from maybe ireland, scotland or wales) so the fact he looks ans sounds thick is pretty irrelevant.

If you really want to draw a positive out of it, you could claim, and rightly so, that he is the true face of wigan.

Sad, but true.

I always pick up on things like that. It seems like whenever Peacock is on Sky Sports News, and his clip has just finished, it always comes back to the presenters in the middle of laughing and they have to try and get a straight/serious face back on for the camera.

On talkSPORT a while back I remember the presenter (don't know who it was) read out an email from a Hull fan moaning about rugby league's lack of coverage on the station and the presenter made a joke about RL being "a sport for thick Northerners like yourself Quinny!"(Micky Quinn). To which Quinn said "I wouldn't know I don't watch it. I might watch the odd England game at Twickenham if it's on tele but 'league' is the other one anyway isn't it?!"

We're fighting a battle nobody wants us to win.

Anyway, back on topic, we do have intelligent people who can string sentences together very well in our game. Kevin Sinfield and Jon Wilkin are used a fair bit, but we have so many more, but the outside world would never know.

I understand what the previous posters mean about the interviewing of players such as Hock and Peacock.

SKY really must get to grips with their coverage.
They should pick the MOM for each game prior to the kick off based on grammar and pronunciation rather than base it on the actual 80 minutes play.

Take the Wigan v Saints game. Jon Wilkin should have been made to come back out of the dressing room ( or ambulance if his injury was that bad ) to collect a well deserved MOM award rather than giving it to Hock.

Or even better lets stop any kids who cannot speak perfect Queens English starting to play the game so we wont have this problem in the future

BITE

fadge did, his was faded as fook at the end of last season

That was due to him sweating over Wigan's poor performance in the league.

finished 1 point behind wire in the league

My original post wasn't saying we should stop Hock, Peacock, etc from being interviewed, but simply pointing out a class bias that exists in society, which undoubtedly leads to opinions being formed about our sport, which is mainly restricted to working class northern towns.

Many people like to cite the Eddie Waring years of whippets, flat caps and laughable coverage, which held back our sport for many years in lots of people's eyes and it is unfortunately a reputation that still exists in many neutral's eyes....For me, it is something that will never go away and it is something that will always be a negative for our game.

Rugby League's lack of success on a national basis, has as much to do with class divide than any question over the quality of the sport and the lads who play our game are unfortunate in that they get judged on their accents than their actual talents.

Shaun Edwards hasn't refined his accent much and he's now treated as Union royalty. Andy Farrell, Chris Ashton, Jason Robinson, Mike Ford anyone?

Actually, I think all this stuff about accents is a complete pile of Ben Cross. Contrary to what was written earlier in the thread, I don't remember ever hearing anyone in the media take the Lee Gaskell out of 'thick, Northern accents', although they do treat us with contempt in a series of different ways. The stuff about Peacock 'sounding thick' is a construct entirely created in the head of chippy, self-hating RL fans - he's a very bright bloke and he speaks eloquently about the game.

Gareth Hock is as thick as pig dung though.

Jamie Peacock does sound quite dense when interviewed straight after matches. However, he's hardly on his own - it continues to astonish me that professional sportspeople are expected to come across like Oscar Wilde when a microphone is thrust in their faces almost before they've even stepped off the pitch/field/court/oche, etc.
The vast majority come out with cliches and banalities, which is hardly surprising, whatever their 'real' level of intelligence may be.

Jason Robinson is very much the exception to your list. He went to Union with a Leeds accent, his current Southern accent is unrecognisable from his original dialect.

A coach one told me, ex Wire full back actually, that Hock is indeed not the brightest academically, but his rugby brain and game awareness is absolutely outstanding. I would prefer him - warts and all - than the well spoken Wilkin.

All those you refer to have been 'accepted' because they have been perceived to have washed themselves of RL and, instead, fully submerged themselves into Union fold.....I wonder what their views are on Chev Walker or Karl Pryce??

Ultimately, RL is viewed as Union's simple, village idiot cousin.....They patronise and put up with us because they simply don't see Rugby League as a viable threat to their media dominance, because that media is dominated by their own type - They also view those running RL as simple characters too, a view which can often be seen as valid when you see some of the decisions that those in charge of our game make, in both the marketing and running of our game.

Wane is a very good coach and wigan through and through, I know that when he goes home every night he watches vids of our games and picks stuff out I wish more coaches has the passion he does

The crafty git!

And that's enough.

I am watching Adam MacDougall put in a very polished sideline reporter stint in the Cowboys v Storm game. Having heard him speak before (and Mark Gasnier, as a by-the-way) , it is obvious that with a modicum of media training, possibly elocution lessons it is feasible to have a media savvy player pool.

Similar to the one that Brian Carney has obviously been on?....



To be honest, I'm not actually suggesting we send our leading lights onto elocution courses, more trying to point out (not fantastically, I admit) that we, as a society, tend to judge people by first impressions, which usually tend to be appearances or the first time you hear them speak....Its in this particular human trait that Rugby League will always tend to suffer for its northern roots.

Somebody like Jamie Peacock is obviously not stupid - He comes across as quite knowledgeable and likeable too, but if you put him alongside a Union equivalent like Lewis Moody and had the pair speaking in front of a bunch of neutrals, who are ignorant of ALL rugby, then its highly likely that Moody would come across in a more favourable light, simply through a more polished presentation style.....That is basically the difference between the two sports in the eyes of the media - One is polished and well spoken, the other isn't.

Wane is a coach, so he has to give interviews. He doesn't come across as a "great intellect", due to the stereotypical "thick Northerner"
To be fair, I think our own Chosen One was bloody awful when he used to do the guest summarising on Sky, a few seasons back. We've also had the well publicised shyness of Jamie Peacock, whenever he's had to deal with the media. Some people are good speakers in front of the camera, some aren't.
Whenever footballers make the grade, they are taken away by their clubs, and are given tuition in how to handle the media/conduct themselves in interview situations. They (football teams) have the time/money/resources to do this. RL teams don't. They just concentrate on rugby matters.

Does our game shoot himself in the foot, with the portrayal of our summarisers/commentators?
Eddie and Stevo doing the old Smith and Jones "head to head" routine, on Boots'n'Al,l a decade ago.
Carney, who started on Sky as the articulate Irishman, is now portraying himself as the "class clown" on some of these Super League's Supermen trailers (embarrassing).
O'Connor and McDermott trying to get laughs in commentary.
You'd never see it done in other sports (apart from Bumble in the cricket, but he IS quality, with 30 years worth of after dinner speaking, under his belt).
We can have a chip on our shoulder about how RU/the media in general sneer at us, but we really do give them the ammunition at times.

The only trouble with Peacock is he sounds like a bo selecta character