Australian cricket journalists are a ravenous pack of animals that love fresh meat. Much like their cricketers. Perhaps you could say that most press pools are like their teams. You could say that England’s is prone to massive highs and despairing lows, much like their team. And that India’s press pool just isn’t as good away from home. I probably didn’t research this enough.

Summer after summer the Australian press have been thrown a meal masquerading as the opposition. Last year that all changed. Australia lost at home for the first time since Dakota Fanning was born. Then they lost another under-reported Test series.

Before the series against the West Indies started, the general mood from the press was apathetic. Ticket sales are down, a team in turmoil is coming, and Chris Gayle is at home with his mum.

When Australia won the first Test so easily, the mood changed. The carnivorous nature returned and the Australian press turned feral. West Indies were sub-par. The performance was embarrassing. They should be relegated. Tickets should be refunded. This wasn’t a Test team. Test cricket was dead. Kill them all.

That sort of stuff.

Tony Cozier was angry and he had a right to be. The West Indies were bad in that Test, but there were reasons. Their captain had arrived about 30 seconds before the toss. Sarwan & Edwards weren’t playing. Jerome Taylor broke down on the first day. And they weren’t helped by the fact that collectively the team batted like they hadn’t played a Test in six months.

Very little of this seemed to be mentioned in the Australian media.

Instead of rolling over and playing dead, the Windies got angry this week. Bravo hit a cavalier hundred, Brendan Nash was called every name under the sun and scratched 92, then Sulieman Benn took a five wicket haul to keep the game level.

That looked like all the Windies had. On day four Chris Gayle had to hold his teammates above water as for the first time in this match their Gabba form came back. But Gayle did such a brilliant job, spurred on by the media attacks and with a new found sense of patience, that he alone made sure they had the runs they needed.

Then on a last day pitch where runs were hard to get, with Benn bowling darts and Rampaul and Bravo moving it around, Australia stumbled. They didn’t lose, but the Windies can claim this as a moral victory. Although you have to lodge a form to the ICC for that.

The Australian media might have to change their ways while their team is this inconsistent. Perhaps they could take on the advice of every cricketer they have ever interviewed, and just take it one match at a time.

Jrod is an Australian blogger and author. His new book Ashes 2009: When Freddie Became Jesus is available now