Is losing at home in Melbourne after playing in WA really a valid excuse?

[Randy Campbell]

Its loser talk.

 

[telsor]

That's like saying the more you get punched in the head the less likely you are to get concussed.

So, the more players train to kick, the worse they are?

Some things do improve with practice, and from my experience, I feel this is true with travel (OK, I've rarely travelled for sport, but the more I've done, the more switched on I am at the end of the trip), but I think the difference it makes in this case is pretty small. Teams travel enough that it wouldn't be a big deal...maybe some of the younger players might be affected, but most would be 99.9% as good anyway.

 

[Tiger2709]

That's like saying the more you get punched in the head the less likely you are to get concussed.

Not really, have you not heard of acclimatisation?

 

[BlakeyNoFlakey]

Surely every club has plans of how they deal with trips to WA, how to recover from them. It's weird that thirty years ago VFL clubs were whinging about travelling to Geelong. I do think if a team plays a really torrid, physical, mentally challenging game one week, it can make them flat the next week, regardless of where it is played.

 

[Scotland]

If you play in WA on a 35 degree Sunday afternoon then have to front up the following Friday in Melbourne then it would have an effect, but for the most part this doesn't happen. For the majority of footy season a typical Perth day has a high in the low 20s, and footy is rarely played during the hottest part of the day anyway. It's not like players are travelling from icy winds and snow to play in the desert.

On very limited results, West Coast and Freo are both good this year. Go back to years like 2001, 2008, 2009 where both teams stank and playing WA somehow wasn't as bad. Funny that.

For us, games in Brisbane and Tassie are the biggest pain in the arse in terms of travel, but I'd still rather go to Brisbane and face the Lions as they are now (no offence, you'll get there) than say Adelaide to play Port or even Freo in Perth. An easy game away takes less out of you than a tough hard game at home.

 

[TedDougChris]

If you play in WA on a 35 degree Sunday afternoon then have to front up the following Friday in Melbourne then it would have an effect, but for the most part this doesn't happen. For the majority of footy season a typical Perth day has a high in the low 20s, and footy is rarely played during the hottest part of the day anyway. It's not like players are travelling from icy winds and snow to play in the desert.

On very limited results, West Coast and Freo are both good this year. Go back to years like 2001, 2008, 2009 where both teams stank and playing WA somehow wasn't as bad. Funny that.

For us, games in Brisbane and Tassie are the biggest pain in the arse in terms of travel, but I'd still rather go to Brisbane and face the Lions as they are now (no offence, you'll get there) than say Adelaide to play Port or even Freo in Perth. An easy game away takes less out of you than a tough hard game at home.

Agreed. It's a combination of a number of factors - the strength of your team and the respective opponent (both in Perth and then the following week), the temperature, the time of year (harder in the early part of the year when it is hotter in Perth and true match conditioning hasn't built up yet), the number of days break you and your opponents have had.

The Dogs struggled against North in Rnd 2 late in the game from a combination of these factors. North having an extra 3 days recovery, not having to travel, having a more mature side, not having played in the heat and the fact WCE was basically at full strength. Was the trip to Perth the sole factor - not on your life and hopefully as our side develops it'll be less of an issue in future years than it was this year.

Having said that, I'd be interested to see the stats that showed how often the bigger Melbourne clubs have had to travel to Perth early in the year, we seem to do it very regularly.

 

[dthom]

Travelling definitely has a long-term impact, which is proven by the fact that Matthew Pavlich will be the first ever WA-based player to reach 300 AFL games. As for the short-term impact, I'm not so sure.

 

[Macca18]

I'm starting to lose a bit of respect for Bomber Thompson with the amount of excuses he is using. Did anyone see the post match conference and then AFL 360? It makes Brad Scott look good.

 

[estibador]

Kids, don't do meth!

 

[Tas]

We often look flat the week after a Perth game if it is hot, if we play a bunny we still get over the line but against a decent team we often lose. Not really an excuse, it is just how things pan out. I don't think clubs are as used to the long travel and playing in hot conditions, often players feel flat on the track until later in the week compared to local games.

If you had to go over every second week you would get used to it. Eagles and Freo were horrendous on the road until they got used to travelling.

 

[jesterwester]

I can understand using more petrol tickets in a game in 35 degree heat compared to a 25 degree day, but once the game is over, you would have to trust your medical staff are onto that and have prepared what to do for each player to make sure they recover quickly. I would hope that this isnt a rigid procedure and it can be customised.

Both WA & QLD sides face this every year, but also have to acclimatise to the autumn conditions in melbourne, which can often be 10-15 degrees cooler, and wet. That would be quite difficult also, but thats the nature of the beast.

Most clubs fly away a day or two before, and they usually get back that same night, barring serious injury or flight complications, and teams are definetly much more mindful of this than maybe even 10 years ago so that the impact is limited.

Anywhere, Anytime should be the motto, IMO.

 

[basashi]

The cumulative effect of travel is what gets ya!

 

[Riccardo11]

Is this after the cavity search?

 

[2one2]

I'll answer this question in hindsight on Sunday

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Like the six day break, its a myth.

 

[Tas]

I can understand using more petrol tickets in a game in 35 degree heat compared to a 25 degree day, but once the game is over, you would have to trust your medical staff are onto that and have prepared what to do for each player to make sure they recover quickly. I would hope that this isnt a rigid procedure and it can be customised.

Both WA & QLD sides face this every year, but also have to acclimatise to the autumn conditions in melbourne, which can often be 10-15 degrees cooler, and wet. That would be quite difficult also, but thats the nature of the beast.

Most clubs fly away a day or two before, and they usually get back that same night, barring serious injury or flight complications, and teams are definetly much more mindful of this than maybe even 10 years ago so that the impact is limited.

Anywhere, Anytime should be the motto, IMO.

Playing in hot conditions is a bit different though, what you are conditioned to and what you are genetically evolved to handle makes a significant difference. I am okay in up to 40 degree heat (doing physical activity), some of my friends struggle in mild heat. Cold really bothers me, even in the mid 20s I wear warm clothing and find it chilly, a friend of mine wears shorts and a t-shirt in cold weather, his genes come from a cold climate, mine come from a warmer climate.

What you are acclimatised also makes a big difference, if you live somewhere where it is a lot hotter you get more used to hotter weather. Those born and or raised in hotter climates and those who spend a fair bit of time getting accustom to the conditions will handle it better. Excessive heat is far more debilitating than excessive cold, because the player activity will warm them up to a certain degree, you can cover yourself in deep heat, etc. Cooling down is a lot harder.

As you saw from the quarter time breaks, all the eagles players were standing around like normal, the Essendon players were all wearing ice vests and looked cactus. Unless you come from a warm climate the heat is going to bother you and it can take some time to recover from significant heat stress.

 

[underthestars]

Record of Victorian teams playing in Victoria within 9 days of playing in Perth:

Year|P|W|L|D|Win %
\1987|8|5|2|1|68.8
\1988|9|5|4|-|55.6
\1989|7|3|4|-|42.9
\1990|7|4|3|-|57.1
\1991|9|6|3|-|66.7
\1992|4|2|2|-|50.0
\1993|5|2|2|1|50.0
\1994|6|3|3|-|50.0
\1995|10|7|3|-|70.0
\1996|13|8|5|-|61.5
\1997|11|7|4|-|63.6
\1998|13|8|5|-|61.5
\1999|10|3|7|-|30.00
\2000|14|9|5|-|64.3
\2001|13|5|8|-|38.5
\2002|11|5|6|-|45.5
\2003|11|-|11|-|-
\2004|12|6|6|-|50.0
\2005|10|3|7|-|30.0
\2006|12|7|5|-|58.3
\2007|15|10|5|-|66.7
\2008|11|7|3|1|68.2
\2009|13|8|4|1|65.3
\2010|11|7|4|-|63.6
\2011|11|3|8|-|27.3
\2012|10|7|3|-|70.0
\2013|10|5|5|-|50.0
\2014|2|-|2|-|-
\Total|278|145|129|4|52.9

Grouped by days since last match:

Days|P|W|L|D|Win %
\5|3|1|2|-|33.3
\6|106|57|47|2|54.7
\7|99|51|47|1|52.0
\8|55|29|25|1|53.6
\9|15|7|8|-|46.7
\Total|278|145|129|4|52.9

No evidence here to support the theory.

Think you're missing something here. A control perhaps? May just further disprove the theory, may not.
This is useful to see that teams haven't improved at adapting over time though. But scientific research on fatigue tells us that there is definitely a disadvantage. Whether that disadvantage extends past a few days is up to debate.

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

If you are good enough, you can win anywhere at anytime. It's just an excuse coaches trot out rather than admit his side isn't good enough. Graham Cornes was a great exponent of the tactic when he was coach of the Crows, almost had people believing you cant win interstate.

 

[madhawksfan]

No it isn't. The good Vic teams of the past few years (Geelong. Collingwood, Saints of a few years ago and Hawthorn) have managed to win after playing interstate consistently.

Playing in 30 degree heat is a huge disadvantage but Hawthorm did it last year off a 6 day break against WC who had two weeks to prepare then followed it up with another 6 day turn around and ran over Collingwood.

Blaming travel is a weak excuse these days.

 

[Big Bryza]

Any place, any time.

 

[TheMcGrathMan]

We often look flat the week after a Perth game if it is hot, if we play a bunny we still get over the line but against a decent team we often lose.

How is this any different to any other week?

After a WA trip we often beat the teams we are better teams than, but lose to the teams that are better than us...yes..

 

[Mezz]

As you saw from the quarter time breaks, all the eagles players were standing around like normal, the Essendon players were all wearing ice vests and looked cactus. Unless you come from a warm climate the heat is going to bother you and it can take some time to recover from significant heat stress.

Well, I'm not surprised the eagle players were standing around like normal, when it was the Dockers that played in that match v Essendon

 

[Tas]

Well, I'm not surprised the eagle players were standing around like normal, when it was the Dockers that played in that match v Essendon

lol, well, you know what I mean.

 

[kranky al]

I want to know who these turncoats are. Hanging round with dockers on gameday - got pics?

 

[im_a_lazy_sod]

Well, I'm not surprised the eagle players were standing around like normal, when it was the Dockers that played in that match v Essendon

Even more amusement was had by me when the Essedon 1/4time huddle was literally huddled under the shadow of one of the light towers

Meanwhile, the Freo huddle was spread out with each group (backs/forwards/mids) getting their specific instructions under the glorious sunshine

On the flipside to this, I remember when we travelled to Geelong mid-season and some of our players got treatment for hypothermia - I may be wrong but the rumour going round was that there was no hot water for the Freo team showers