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

OOOHHHHH, CAN YA SMELL IT? CRAB PAAAYYYSTE

Having read previous comments, a PR consultant could probably work wonders with how our game is perceived in the rest of Britain . I think we need to get more coverage on BBC or ITV , whether only lower division or under 20 games, to show the game as a whole to a wider non Sky subscribing audience .Maybe even a competition with current SL teams like the old BBC floodlit competition of yesteryear & played midweek.Even the Superleague show is a joke ,showing today in the north at 12 35 pm ,shown nationally sometime in the early hours of tomorrow.It is ironic that the BBC used rugby league as a mainstay to launch BBC2 just like Sky did with its sports channels...now we are really only tolerated by both companies to be used for their convenience.