Just finished watching the Wigan v Leeds game and the subsequent interviews and reflected that, in general terms, the media skills of RL coaches is woeful. There are very few exceptions that I can think of.

Tonight was a case in point for different reasons with Shaun Wane struggling to put anything salient and different across but that's normal for him bless him. However in recent weeks I have seen a real change in Brian McDermott. As an articulate guy he is beginning to come across like an arrogant, tetchy, spoilt child trying to embarrass the interviewer rather than answering the questions. He was actually quite rude to Rod Studd (I think it was him) again this evening and it was pretty awkward.

I remember last year or the year before when McNamara spat his dummy out on the BBC a few times and it's a poor reflection on the game when our coaches appear either unable to articulate themselves properly or depict themselves as petulant children à la football manager.

The problem isn't the players. The problem is the standard of journalism. It's pathetic.

I remember when I used to do match reports on a SL press ticket. I was appalled by just how utterly disinterested, unprofessional and ... well ... stupid most RL journalists are. Those writing for the newspapers are constantly whining about not covering the Premier League (the best of the lot was so dispirited he'd been taken by alcohol). Those writing for league publications have scarcely had an original thought in their lives and are probably lobotomised. TV has the pick of the bunch. But at best it's school/college newspaper level.

I've said for years now - there's a HUGE gap in the market for an intelligent, articulate and enthusiastic independent RL journalist. He'd clean up.

I don't think I've ever mentioned this but what really shocked me was the time when I was covering the Challenge Cup Final between us and Wigan in Cardiff and I witnessed several individuals who shall remain nameless running a betting pool on the MoM. Which was decided by ...

You are barking up the wrong tree here.

The point the OP was making about McDermott is valid. He was obviously peed off and took it out on the interviewer.

Two very bad refereeing decisions cost Leeds; the non try by Leeds for obstruction when Tomkins made his mid up 5 minutes earlier that he was going out of position to go into the Leeds runner. The second was missing the Smith knock on leading to a Wigan try.
Any coach would be fuming about those but McDermott pretended he wasn't bothered and had a real go at Studd for allegedly misquoting him. For an intelligent man he is a berk.

One point I would agree with you on is the likes of Studd are hopeless as journo's.
.

To be fair to Rodd Studd, Brian Mc has said "you get what you deserve" before in a post match interview. It come across as petulant behaviour last night www.theguardian.com/sport/2009/j ... harlequins

To be fair to Rodd Studd, Brian Mc has said "you get what you deserve" before in a post match interview. It come across as petulant behaviour last night www.theguardian.com/sport/2009/j ... harlequins

Shaun Wane always comes across as thick. His usual sayings are - "I'm not appy" "that wasn't a wigan performance".

KC practically just says we lost the game ourselves and seems very reluctant to give the opposition any praise.

Of course, finding a way to monetise any better RL writing is the main stumbling block between me and this potential career-change....

I find Tony Smith is the exception

Yeah probably as he's never sulky or rude. I kinda agree with Mugwump's wider perspective that the standard of journalism in general is very poor. Just listen to those two idiots on BBC Radio Merseyside for goodness' sake - at a time where we should be looking to promote the game as a credible, professional sport those two can't even speak the English language properly.

I actually think Iestyn Harris is another exception as there's one word that applies here - dignity. You can lose with dignity yet, sadly, too many of our coaches are showing their limitations in this regard and McDermott's carry on last night was a disgrace to be honest - he let the Leeds Club down. I can't make my mind up about him; is he that good or is he doing a Millward with a generation of players at the right time?

Maybe media work is something that the RFL need to invest in for coaches?

I don't mind that too much to be honest, he's coaching St Helens not anybody else.

It wound me up beyond belief when Nathan Brown kept praising Sean O'Loughlin before our derbies, it's like we were afraid of him and in admiration of his ability.

When leeds put a score on us like last week then you've got to paraise them. We didn't lose it, they won it. They was better in every department.

I know what you're saying, and KC does say some bizarre things at times, but after we've been whooped like that, the last thing I want to hear from our coach is how awesome Leeds were.

I find rugby league in this country generally likes to downplay the role of the media and the power it has in selling rugby league. We criticise Sky's coverage, which is fair enough, but fans also generally seem to hate the fact that Sky has any influence in our game, despite the fact that they give us so much money. This reflects itself in the coaches, who treat interviews as something that has to be done, rather than something which can be done to sell the game better.

The exception to this is Tony Smith I'd say. The best example would be Paul Anderson at the Magic Weekend. The interviewer basically said obviously Huddersfield had lost but isn't the Magic Weekend a great experience, with the record crowd and rave reviews. Anderson replied saying that he basically didn't care because they'd lost. Killed the interview completely.

You praise the opposition when [uyour side plays well and you still lose[/u. Why praise them when you've played badly? All they've done is walk through an open door.

2 things:

1 - Because sometimes they play that well they negate everything you throw at them. They are just better than you. Remember the WCC?

2 - Why do you persist in using CAPITALS and [uunderlining EVERYTHING[/u in your POSTS? People can read.

As much as they were better throughout, the major difference was how badly we started. If after 18 minutes you are 18-0 down and have completed 1 set from 6, that's us losing it IMO.

To be fair the leeds post match interview was the best he has done as he actully said what needed saying regarding how "garbage" we was.

It was. For the first time I saw a flash of anger in his eyes instead of the smug, self satisfied, goofy look I have become accustomed to. Keep it up KC - let's hope we see a reaction later.

KC Is a very calm softly spoken guy. I can't ever seeing him really losing his rag as its not in him. He was same as player. He was tough and hard but very quite and always calm.

It was nice to see him mention senior players he wasn't happy with, in the past it's been the younger guys he's called out.

Like I said, the coaching job came a year early and KC knew last July that he would most probably be first team coach so he's also inexperienced talking as a coach on live TV.

There is no doubt that his calm disposition is an attribute. I just hate any coach calling out any players publicly. The Press work is communication and expectation management.

What any coach thinks of a player is for the sheds and the training ground. No exceptions.

Some players might respond better to public criticism?

Why? Because IT GETS ON YOUR NERVES.

[uDEAL WITH IT.[/u

You are looking at this from entirely the wrong perspective. As the line goes in Field of Dreams, [i"Build it and they will come"[/i. How much is a domain name, web space and a MYSQL database on which to run some kind of open source blogging software - £70 per year?

If you are really interested go for it. There's such a paucity of writing talent in RL anything decent will be wolfed down like free doughnuts. Good content sells itself. Once you become established then you look at income streams. Although don't expect to become a millionaire. When me and Fish started RLFANS we never thought we'd make a penny out of it. Nowadays we make a bit through sponsorship. But we've never been particularly great at selling RLFANS.

Phil Clarke thought he'd become a multi-millionaire with his Rugbee.com but he made the mistake of investing a lot of capital up front in snazzy graphics and custom-written content management without having a shred of content to sell. Unsurprisingly it folded in a very short space of time.

My advice to anyone thinking along such lines is to stay away from match reports. Let the league rags handle that stuff. Look instead at writing, say, 1000-3000 word in-depth articles on particular aspects of the game. There's too much superficial stuff written these days. You could even do player interviews - but something substantial in which you really get an idea of who the player is, his thoughts on the game, stories he has to tell.

Take someone such as Alex Murphy, for example. A guy like that is CRYING OUT for someone bear witness to all the things he saw and did in the game. I'd love to sit him down infront of a camera for a week or two and simply record all the interesting things he has to say.

There's so much CONTENT out there which is fading from memory and will ultimately be lost unless people get off their asses and record it.

If you or anyone else is really interested I'll give you all the publicity you can handle through this site. I'd love to do it.

But is there a sufficient audience amongst RL supporters for the more in-depth prose you suggest? I know one shouldn't judge the entire supporter base from the Rugby Leaguer Readers' Letters page, but.....

Well, it's significant. And it's growing. You've just got to go for it. As I've said, there's always an audience for quality. As for money - I don't know. I rarely talk about my involvement with RLFANS in public. When I do and I mention that this site gets more traffic than Virgin Rail it's amazing how often the first response is, [i"I bet you make loads"[/i. People look at me like I've just dropped down from Mars when I tell them that I was never really motivated by money. We set up RLFANS because we loved the game and people needed a forum to discuss it because most of the club boards were being closed down over legal issues. Maybe we could have scraped a full-time living out of this site if we'd really put the hard sell on. But I'd hate myself for doing it.

To be honest, I wish more fans would embrace YouTube. All you need these days is a decent smartphone, some open source video editing software and a big dose of imagination and commitment. Anyone can set up a Rugby League discussion channel.