OK, let’s have a show of hands – who had heard of Mollie-Mae Hague before the National Television Awards took place on Wednesday, 10th September?

For those still unaware, she is a reality TV personality and former Love Island contestant, who was up against our very own Rob Burrow in the Authored Documentary category at the glitzy awards ceremony.

Rob’s final documentary, that was shown after his death from motor neurone disease in June 2024, was the favourite to win the award ahead of Mollie-Mae’s ‘Behind it All’ show and other nominees Boyzone, Freddie Flintoff and Strictly professional dancer Amy Dowden, but for a third time he missed out in the public vote – despite a big rallying call from the whole game to get him the victory.

After the winner was announced, social media went into meltdown with people from all walks of life criticising the result and claiming Rob was “Robbed”.

To her credit though, Mollie-Mae was quick to acknowledge the Burrow family, and the other nominees as she seemed genuinely shocked, and perhaps even embarrassed, that she had been given the nod ahead of them, ending her acceptance speech with: “As you guys saw there were some seriously inspirational people in this category, and to Lindsay, Rob Burrow’s wife and his children, his story was more inspirational than mine could ever be. It was just incredible, and it touched me in more ways than I can explain. So this one’s for you Rob, and the other inspirational people that were in this category.”

She reiterated a similar message on social media the following day in response to the backlash she faced for the win, with seemingly with all news outlets picking up on the furore. Greg James even discussed the subject on his BBC Radio One breakfast show, again mentioning Rob and his incredible story of bravery and selflessness in the most difficult of circumstances.

I can’t help but wonder if Rob and his documentary would have received nearly the same amount of publicity after the event had he won.

The old adage says that ‘all publicity is good publicity,’ and that certainly seems to be something rugby league lives by. The only problem is that most of the publicity our sport seems to attract from the wider world is when there is something negative to report.

Rob Burrow’s story aside, because he did capture the heart of the nation, generally when rugby league and/or its players make national headlines or go viral, it’s for all the wrong reasons.

The latest example of this was York Valkyrie star Sinead Peach following her red card against St Helens at the end of August.

After awarding a penalty to St Helens, referee Oliver Salmon called Peach back over to him and claimed she asked him: “Which one are you s****ing?”

Peach has since been handed a four-match ban for questioning the integrity of a referee.

Yes, ok, the comment might have given people a good giggle at the time, but for many people outside of the game, that will have been the first footage they’d have ever seen of women’s rugby league, and they may not have even been aware that there is even a Women’s Super League competition.

The fact that the 78 minutes before the incident had been a great contest that saw both sides battle hard and produce a great advert for the game was totally forgotten and ignored, with the focus being on Peach and her comment.

The referee’s mic did not pick up her initial comment; it was only known what was said because the referee repeated it as he showed her the red card. Had he simply just said: “You can’t say that to me,” or words to that effect, then no one would have been aware of the comment and the incident would have passed largely unnoticed.

Virtually everyone involved in rugby league is willing to shout from the rooftops how great this game is, but the noise we make is still not louder than that coming from all other walks of life.

The truth of the matter is that we are currently living in a world where reality TV stars and social media influencers are the big hitters, and you know what they say – if you can’t beat them, join them.

Mollie-Mae winning the NTA is a perfect example of what can happen if a personality is marketed in the right way. In a public vote, she came out on top. Was that award meant to be a popularity vote? Probably not, but is that what it turned out to be? Probably.

Perhaps now is the time flip things on its head – where as now we are maybe relying on selling the game to market our players – in a world where social media, popularity and image are a huge factor, perhaps we should promote the players and their personalities, to help market the game and make sure everyone is aware of it for all the right reasons.

First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 513 (October 2025)