Do the media even know what they are talking about?

I’ve been watching the AFL/VFL now for nearly 30 years and this season is shaping up to be the best I have ever witnessed.

Forget about all this nonsense of it becoming a game resembling rugby due to the rolling maul – this game is alive and well.

Over the past month alone I have seen some of the finest football in the history of our sport, ranging from the epic match between the Swans and Port at the SCG, to one of the best showdowns in recent times in Adelaide.

We have had contest after contest between teams that only a year ago were considered basket cases.

What about the effort of Gold Coast on the weekend to hold out against the mighty Pies with no subs for an entire quarter of football? Sensational drama and we still have seven rounds to go!

The most amazing thing this has taught me though is just how little many of the ‘so’ called experts both on this site and in the media know about football. The number of times I have heard opinions on teams and their potential downfall based on but a few matches is astounding.

Let’s quickly break down some of the teams along with what was said in the media at particular points throughout this grand season.

Saint Kilda came flying out of the gates early winning three out of their first five games. Personally I was surprised, as I didn’t think they would win one game this year and finish bottom. The media were talking them up as potential finals material along with Nick Riewoldt winning the Brownlow after a few best on grounds.

Last week during On the Couch they had a whole segment on just how rubbish Saint Kilda are and how they got to this dark place.

Fremantle get crushed in the grand final replay during Round 3 by the Hawks. Experts such as Gerard Healy and Co start breaking down Lyon’s game plan questioning whether such a defensive style can ever win a premiership.

Last week the same bunch of ‘experts’ announced that Fremantle may well now claim second spot and are looking like real premiership material along with the ultimate turncoat in Mike Sheehan.

North Melbourne has been up and down more times than exotic pole dancer. They have themselves to blame, however, this does not stop many people jumping on and off the Kangaroos bandwagon.

Right now many commentators have them in the top four along with potential premiers. As sure as taxes and at least one weekly celebrity sex tape being released by ‘accident’ on the internet, the Kangaroos are going to be talked back down again by these same experts this year.

Geelong has been on the slide now for the past four years according to Mike Sheehan. He yet again made this claim after Geelong got absolutely flogged by the Swans – what a hero!

Chris Scott summed it up nicely though when he mentioned if you talk a team down long enough, sooner or later you are going to be right. Mike Sheehan’s prediction will one day come true, but that doesn’t make him a very good expert. It’s a bit like when your buddy wins on the 100/1 donkey at the races and tells you how awesome he is at tipping. What he doesn’t realise is how much of a tool he looks like on the other 99 occasions…

GWS defeated the Swans in the opening game in quite possibly the worst game of football I have ever seen, in some of the worst conditions. However, all of a sudden Sydney media attack the Swans for being beaten by such an embarrassing team. Conversely all the AFL guru’s are talking up how awesome the ‘potential’ of this exciting Giants team is and could they make the top eight in just their third year.

Four rounds ago on AFL 360, questions were being asked by Gerard Whateley as to whether they are being coached correctly and whether the environment is right for all these young players after being pumped again by over 100 points.

Two rounds later (after playing some competitive football and a win), they are now tracking as good as any new club according to this ‘expert’.

My favourite though has to be the Swans. They started out losing three of their first four games. Pretty much every expert had their opinion based on these four games, despite history telling us the Swans are slow starters. The ‘Bloods’ culture was questioned, John Longmire’s hard pressure football was in doubt and Buddy Franklin was a bad influence based on him not being able to drive a Jeep.

For the past five weeks now the Swans not only have been premiership favourites, but are being haled as one of the most exciting teams to watch ever due to the Bondi Billionaires.

Memberships are at their highest, record attendances at the SCG for the past decade and the back pages in the Sydney Herald about the Swans playing magnificent football.

This is a credit to the AFL, it really is. The number of turncoats is indicative of just how tight the AFL premiership race is this year for it is next to impossible to pick a winner each week.

The final eight teams may not change much in the last seven rounds, but the order of the eight certainly can. It would take a ‘real’ expert to pick the order of the top eight at the end of the home-and-away season.

So my fellow Roarers – put your money where your mouth is. List your top eight and who you think the premiers are going to be, because we are in for a cracking finals series.