Are you serious? Go checkout the Predicted AFL ladder thread. The first 50+ pages have 90% people putting Dees in their top 4. Some as top 1.Mate David King shot his load in 2017 when we beat WC in Perth by 3 points and declared we’d win the flag, we didn’t play finals!
No mate, the public didn’t bring it, the term public is very broad. The media got into a circle jerk about us and the rest is history.
This was as early as Sep last year and all the way up to beginning of season 2019. It was wifespread view. Hence ecpecations.