To get maximum enjoyment from Nerds FC, you will first of all need to put aside the notion that to be good at sport you can’t be intelligent, and vice versa. At least I had to anyway.

The premise of this SBS-produced reality-television show is relatively simply.  Take 14 ‘nerds’ who have no experience with football - ‘soccer’ for those of you who didn’t manage to hitch a ride on the 2006 World Cup bandwagon - and give them 3 months to be moulded into football stars.

Nerds FC is based on a Danish show, and seems to work quite well for its intended  sporting-mad Australian audience.   Not quite a rags to riches tale, however you do find yourself barracking for the underdog, hoping that maybe, just maybe, the nerds can get it together on and off the field.

The first couple of episodes we see the guys interacting with coaches Andy Harper and Milan Blagojevic.  It’s all pretty cliché stuff – the coaches wonder what they have got themselves into, and the Nerds wonder if they will ever be able to coordinate both feet at once.  But little by little, the Nerds’ skills increase and some mutual respect is found between the brainy and the brawny.

One of the best episodes is where Nerds FC visits a local jail to take on some prisoners in a ‘friendly’.  The usual trepidation that most people would have confronting convicted criminals is nicely captured, with the guys promising to back each other up should anything go down.  However the highlight is coach Andy Harper’s genuine shock, when he realises that most of the opposing side are doing time for murder.

There are a number of other equally entertaining events throughout the series, before culminating in the final challenge - a match between professional A-league side, Melbourne Victory.  Nerds play a team of girls, and lose - badly; Nerds learn to sing and dance – again, badly; and Nerds get made over.  

If you were ever the person who was always picked last for high school PE, then you may want to have sorted out your awkward teenage years issues before watching this DVD.  For everyone else, Nerds FC is one of the better reality-television shows of the last few years.