Apart from his brain fart against Widnes, iv been very impressed with the rugby we have played, we are a joy to watch at times and that showed yesterday. IMO its great to have his kind of emotion and passion back in the sport, we need characters, its something RL is severely lacking.

The media have found out that they can get a couple of seconds of 'good TV' by panning in on Wane especially when a decision goes against Wigan. Other than this coming across, at times, as a lack of professionalism, it just shows his passion for the club. The one problem that I do see was shown in an example in yesterdays game when Charnley missed that kick that would have put them 3 scores ahead. He was clearly seen to criticise him and that should have been kept for the training ground, even if it needed to be mentioned at all. He'll watch these things back and will adjust his behaviour over time.

The one thing that is good about Wane is the type of rugby that he is trying to instill at Wigan as opposed to that under Margaret.

At least the Maguire era lives on in the form of THAT blue and white striped shirt that Wane was wearing.

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.