The Darwin Impact

[MotlopRules]

History tells us that Port have never won a game* the week after playing in Darwin. Melbourne also looked very flat yesterday. Apparently the boys lost an average of 1.5kgs after the game.

Which begs the question, is it worth playing up there? The support always seems to be skewed in favour of the opposition team, and our win-loss record is not good. It's not our home game. Is it worth the effort?

And if it is, what can be done to try and minimise the impact of playing up there?

Thoughts?

*Except for 2004 against Collingwood

 

[finbarr]

I'm sure we beat Collingwood at the MCG the week after playing in Darwin late 2004. We're just s**t.

 

[MotlopRules]

I'm sure we beat Collingwood at the MCG the week after playing in Darwin late 2004. We're just s**t.

Ah, you're right. Didn't realise it went that far back.

But imo, the fact still remains that for the last four years, we have played in Darwin four times, and subsequently lost the following week.

Not trying to make excuses, because we were appalling, just thought it was food for thought whether it was actually worth going up there with the apparent consequences.

 

[Fazualdo]

If we are to continue with this Darwin experiment, then we should request that it comes the week before the bye.

Otherwise it's not worth it, there's no excuse for yesterdays performance. The conditions in Darwin last week however are nothing like you would play anywhere else Aus, except for Brisbane early in the year.

As you said we don't seem to have any genuine support up there, which puzzles me considering the amount of indigenous players we've had that come from Darwin. Then again I thought we'd easily get over 30,000 a game (on average) here in Adelaide and we can't even get close.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

We've agreed to play 6 games there over 3 years. Whether there's any significant financial gain or not, it's happening.

 

[PAFC04]

I always think that we need to think about our preparation.

Call me stupid......but I would have had the team there on Monday to have them acclimatise to the weather and the game at hand.

Arriving there a day before is not enough time for my likely to give our self a chance at winning the game.

After the Darwin game, the training sessions leading up to this game against Richmond should have been kept to a minimum to refresh the team.

Looking flat mentally and physically.

 

[*PAF]

... But imo, the fact still remains that for the last four years, we have played in Darwin four times, and subsequently lost the following week.

Not trying to make excuses, because we were appalling, just thought it was food for thought whether it was actually worth going up there with the apparent consequences.

The fact still remains that: since 2004 we have used every excuse under the sun to put wall paper over our cracks.

The Bulldogs have played more games than us in Darwin and as far as I can tell:
1. They have to travel further, and
2. Melbourne's weather is even further removed from Darwin's.

2004 lost to Port following week beat Kangaroos

2005 beat Carlton following week lost to St Kilda

2006 lost to Port following week beat Adelaide

2007 beat Freo following week lost to Kangaroos

2008 beat Port following week beat Melbourne

2009 beat Port following week beat Kangaroos


That is 6 games followed by 4 wins and 2 losses yet we use the game as an excuse for being crap?
We prepare crappily, we select crappily, we have a crappy gameplan and our players perform like crap but we look for excuses? That is crap.

EDIT: Carlton lost the week after their Darwin game whereas Freo won. Yes, FREO won by 77 points against the 3rd to bottom team that had already won 4 games.

 

[brogan2motlop]

We lost to Richmond by 40 points....there is no Darwin impact.

 

[Portology]

We lost to Richmond by 40 points....there is no Darwin impact.

Last night at the club it was said Brett Ebert has lost 4 kgs up there on the night. There is a Darwin imapct. We don't seem to have dealt with it. Among many other things. For example having all the remaining small forwards on our list off the park within a few minutes didn't help. Just showing that other teams have dealt with Darwin conditions does not mean they ignore them or that they don't exist. Ditto for any stats around travel to/from WA.

 

[brogan2motlop]

Last night at the club it was said Brett Ebert has lost 4 kgs up there on the night. There is a Darwin imapct. We don't seem to have dealt with it. Among many other things. For example having all the remaining small forwards on our list off the park within a few minutes didn't help. Just showing that other teams have dealt with Darwin conditions does not mean they ignore them or that they don't exist. Ditto for any stats around travel to/from WA.

we can make excuses every team has them... doesn't change anything...

umpires, darwin whatever I hate those excuses we are not the only footy club that faces challenges

 

[PortBrillance]

we havnt won in Darwin for years. So it's basicly two losses in a row.

end this s**t now.

 

[seanoff]

you haven't won anything in years.

and your style of play yesterday had nothing to do with the conditions the previous week. trying to handball and finesse in those conditions is no ones and nothings fault but your own.

 

[thurmanmunson]

I thought this thread was about the impact of evolution

 

[Peck]

It is definitely starting to seem like its not worth playing up there.

 

[klem22]

the impact after playing in darwin might be debatable what is not is their poor performances in darwin itself explain that this team is average at best and if they dont do their homework and hit the field with the right attitude you can kiss them goodbye no room for the many errors they make on and off the field regardless of where they play

 

[*PAF]

we havnt won in Darwin for years. So it's basicly two losses in a row.

end this s**t now.

The s**t is not the Darwin games, the s**t is what is being dished up year after year after year.

 

[FishingRick04]

I reckon I would go the opposite, some of us have lived in those conditions and the longer you are in it, the more draining it is.

I was say, fly up on the day, play and leave.

 

[Pinepower]

I reckon I would go the opposite, some of us have lived in those conditions and the longer you are in it, the more draining it is.

I was say, fly up on the day, play and leave.

But now they are not allowed too. AFL rules you have to fly in the day before.

I do not know how long this has been in but there was trouble with connecting flights to Canberra and Tassie.

IIRC Port had to fly to Sydney one year as Canberra was fogged in.

 

[Portology]

we can make excuses every team has them... doesn't change anything...

umpires, darwin whatever I hate those excuses we are not the only footy club that faces challenges

hate excuses, recognize challenges, learn from reasons. it's the degree of truthfulness that varies. reasons are about looking at what happened and spotting the things you didn't do that could have been done differently and the things you didn't do that *most likely* weren't fixable on the day. we come across as really bad at assessing some of that, because of the low quality of what Choco spouts off in the pressers, and because he gives the impression his plans are fixed in stone, therefore failure of execution is always about the players and never about a flawed, inflexible plan or his failure to coach people to be able to adapt quickly.

eg 'going in too top heavy' was dismissed as 'well the hit outs didn't matter much'. that's 100% 'excuse'. We knew they were going with two raw young rucks, Hardwick said so, they left Vickery out, why not leave Westhoff and Trengove to share the ruck and have Meyer in (for Stewart probably) as yeah being able to switch Salter and Chad around could have been useful. One more midfielder potentially getting to that ball being randomly kicked out of the packs. Choco, you were wrong on one count and right on the other. Just fecking say so sometime and stop blaming players all the time.

Losing all the small forwards, well there you go. Whatcha going to do ?

Ditto any Darwin impact. Where is the "our record is shite *compared to others* we obviously we might be doing something wrong" statement from the club. Instead it's 'nah, nothing in that' meaning "suck it up guys it;'s all your fault". Does not ring true.

I take your point about crap 'excuses', but that doesn't mean there aren't valid reasons for some of what happened taht we could learn from. I just wish we'd get more intelligible comments from the club on that front.