Regarding travel etc
You're not going to prove if the additional travel we do shortens careers although anecdotally the tendency of our players to fall off a cliff post 30 suggests it has an impact. Whether it does or doesn't is a moot point though because the perception throughout the industry is that the extra travel is a burden and for the most part the WA clubs try to downplay any impact whilst acknowledging it is a stumbling block
Beyond any career impact, real or perceived, is the lifestyle issue. Our players fly out every 2nd week over a 4 month stretch which makes planning weekends difficult and would have an adverse impact on relationships especially once kids are part of the equation. By contrast a Victorian based player flys out 4 or 5 times a season so the irregularity of it is less intrusive
That said our ability to retain interstate players suggests the problem isn't perhaps as big as we think but .....
It may well be that we have to pay overs for our Victorian players to retain them. What if this permeates through the playing group and we have to pay equivalent salaries to the rest of the playing group based on relative talent such that our players are effectively overpaid
So something that may only be a perceived problem translates into us paying overs for our playing group.
Tldr the extra travel affects our ability to attract players even if it doesn't cause any measurable long term impact