Travel Problems

[sammyg77]

Just a quick post regarding our travelling problems. Having being based in Sydney the last 5 years I know that whenever I travel back home to Perth or back here to Sydney my body is absolutely screwed for at least 3 or 4 days. The fact that these guys play a game of football the next day is beyond me. Absolute freaks.

Anyway, do you think the Eagles have ever thought about basing themselves in Melbourne for a period of 4 or 5 weeks so that we can play the majority of games all in one burst. Could be an advantage as it allows the team to bond, takes away the travelling issue, allows us to become acclimatised and will definately help us in the long term of keeping Victorian stars as they will be able to spend a lot of time with family.

Flipside is that we obviously get to have a good run of home games in a row as well.

Would love everyones opinion cos Im sure if the Aussie cricket team can do it for months on end, surely as professional footballers they can do it for a month.

 

[Swarbs]

These days many footballers have other jobs/go to uni...makes it a little hard.

also, i like watching the home games once every 2 weeks live.

 

[theorangeapple]

it would be much more disrupting staying in a foreign environment without friends, family, job/uni, and an established social scene. its abit different to cricketers because they simply couldnt travel back and forward to India for each test match.

 

[triplegee]

I think it's something that should definitely be looked at. As stated by sammyg stated there's upside in the run of home games that we would get and anything would be an improvement on our current away record.

Why not have the team play 5 in a row interstate? Ideally at least 3 of those would be in Melbourne and not have us traversing the eastern seaboard.

There's the cricketers as the extreme examples but the major leagues in the US have extensive shorter road trips as well.

I do recall we played 2 games in a row over east at one stage - not sure on specfics but I seem to recall we lost?

 

[Ruddiger]

No way would they base themself in Melbourne. Logistically, it would be a nightmare. Trying to arrange accommodation, meals, training facilities, recovery session areas.

Plus the whole team pride and state loyalty. We'd also miss an opportunity to play at Subi, where we dominate.

 

[sammyg77]

Getting some good feedback - Didnt think it would be viable but it would be nice to play most our Melbourne games all at once so we could then have six or seven games in a row back in perth.

I just hate seeing great Eagle players retiring early due to the massive amounts of travel we do, and because of this we have a smaller window of opportunity to win a flag.

Its scary when you compare our travelling to other teams. For example in 2003 our first away game was against Hawthorn in Tasmania. In this game alone we travelled more km's and spent more time in the air than Collingwood (who made the grand final) did for the entire home and away season.

Its a big reason why we finish our seasons so poorly and a big reason why we dont perform well interstate, hence my post.

 

[bluey17]

"Its a big reason why we finish our seasons so poorly and a big reason why we dont perform well interstate, hence my post."



USED TO finish seasons poorly.

On the topic, in theory it's probably a good idea but in reality its ALOT of hardwork and re-shuffling of things and the AFL are never going to go do us any huge favours, which is why I can't see it happening.

It is possible for interstate teams to win on the road but it just takes a team ALOT better then all the vic teams which is why our gf appearances will be along time apart and the same is said for a good away record.

It really is appaling how much vics under-rate the effects of travel, that stat about us travelling to tassie is amazing. It will make our success all the more better