Let’s be up front. As an employee during the halcyon days of The Footy Show from 1996-2004, it was in the DNA of everyone at the Nine Network’s spiritual home of Bendigo Street to consider Channel Seven as “the enemy” and under Eddie, Sam and Trev, we would take the you-know-what out of them at every opportunity.

A decade and a half later though, I just want to be told by the experts what I’m not seeing, or what I don’t know I’m looking at .

Last weekend, the Fox Footy duo of Garry Lyon and Nick Riewoldt covered the Essendon-North Melbourne Saturday twilight game, and delivered those needs in spades.

For instance, Lyon, after Cam Zurhaar marked and goaled: “Well, this is confidence. A willingness to go for the mark. Maybe earlier in the year he wouldn’t have had this confidence, but he’s riding a wave, and now every time the ball is in the area, he thinks he has a right to go for it and he did.”

Riewoldt talking over the top of the post-goal replay: “Well he won’t get a stat for this, Ben Brown, but have a look at the selfless forward play from him. He runs back just to create a block. He knows he’s not in position. But he’s able to get some body across Marty Gleeson and just allow Cam Zurhaar a free run at the footy. ”

Surely the point of having former champions as experts is their ... expertise? In that instance, Lyon and Riewoldt explained the mental process, the skill execution and the off-the-ball strategy that led to the goal.

Perfect!

Fox’s format is to have a single play-by-play man, and Anthony Hudson enhanced the game by keeping the prepared statements to a minimum, and importantly called the key moments (very well) before shutting up and not feeling the need to “direct” the response of those charged with describing the game.

Channel Seven’s style is in contrast to that, and in my opinion that’s misguided. The two callers are the “main men” regardless of the credentials of the rest of the broadcast team, and they don’t just describe the game, but lead the conversations.

Illustration: Matt Golding

An example from Hamish McLachlan, Brian Taylor, Leigh Matthews and (guest) Joel Selwood from the Western Bulldogs and Demons game on Sunday:

Hamish: “Wonder if the Dunkleys [Bulldog Josh and Demon Kyle] travelled to the game together today?”

Joel: “He’s definitely started well Josh. A couple of clearances.”

Leigh: “What? You can’t travel to the game together with an opponent even if you are related, surely!”

BT: “Be a quiet old car trip. I don’t know about you Joel, it’s a pretty quiet time even if you have people in the car.”

Joel: “Yeah one thing playing against a brother. The phone calls do dry up during the week.”

Hamish: “You drive up with [wife] Brit. She reads the magazines while you stay silent.”

Joel: “Oh a bit of that. Instagram’s a big goer for her now.”

This happened while the game was actually going!

Being free to air, Channel Seven clearly don’t want to be as “hard core” as Fox Footy, but why would they think their viewers prefer inane banter to insights?

BT: “[Angus] Brayshaw wrapped up in the tackle by Smith and as you say Hames, he’s had a great debut year playing every game.”

Hamish: “He has, he’s got the Rising Star nomination. He’s obviously an emerging player with an emerging mullet. Growing the mullet to raise funds for the Royal Children’s Hospital. Mullets for kids if you’d like to donate so there’s a rationale for it.”

BT: “There was a day when they weren’t good for anything but there you go.”

Hamish: “Stephen Kernahan lived through the good and the bad days.”

BT: “The mullet is now valuable.”

Hamish: “Stephen Kernahan’s is on eBay.” Again, this was during play!

Being free to air, Channel Seven clearly don’t want to be as “hard core” as Fox Footy, but why would they think their viewers prefer inane banter to insights?

It’s fantastic the way AFL and all media partners continuously give wide exposure to great causes. At the Fox game, they also gave Jake Stringer’s match day boots he was auctioning for Challenge Cancer great coverage. After a goal. And during the quarter-time break ...

The use of statistics is also significantly different.

Famous US pollster Nate Silver wrote a book called The Signal and the Noise and the phrase could also describe Fox and Seven. Fox likes the signal approach.

Lyon: “Once it gets [into the Kangas] forward they are a dangerous combination inside 50. Five marks inside their forward 50 from 10 entries.”

Riewoldt: “Deliberate inside 50s too. Not the norm like the rest of the competition where it’s just a bailout kick to the top of the square where you’re really trying to defend with the ball in hand. They are looking to spot up targets where there’s movement. And movement creates space and creates doubts.”

Channel Seven offers noise; meaningless facts.

Hamish: “... to Macrae who is another one of these Dogs who have not missed a game this year, to Dunkley who is playing against his brother...”

By comparing the pair last weekend, a grizzled cynic might say Seven’s team are trying overly hard to impress those above them.

Meanwhile at Fox, they aren’t auditioning because they already have the gig.

Ralphy ‘‘Racetrack” Horowitz is a racing analyst and a former producer at The Footy Show.

Nine is the owner of the The Age.