Hello again Bomber fans,
‘Come fly with me, come fly, let’s fly away’ to Optus Stadium in Perth, smash and grab the four points and get outta there!
I wish an interstate game ‘smash and grab’ was as smooth as ‘Old Blue Eyes’’ voice.
Interstate travel for Victorian-based clubs and the eight non-Victorian clubs can be an uphill battle at times. It can largely depend on the games played and age demographics of your team, your opponents and their form.
This week throws a spanner in the works, with the team having to travel three days prior to the game, isolate in its hotel and await negative COVID-19 test results before being able to conduct its main training session. It will be important not to make too much of a fuss, deal with it, and just get on with business.
Some will say the non-Victorian clubs have it easier as they travel every second week, but they still have to confront exactly the same challenges of an interstate game and travel (nowhere near having to go from the MCG to Marvel Stadium for home games like poor old Richmond, and a lot further than Essendon ‘Three-time Champion of the Colony’ Albert Thurgood and his team would have ever imagined back at the turn of the 20th century).
I’ve been lucky to experience it from a playing perspective at the Bombers and witnessed it from a coaching perspective with Brisbane and Essendon.
There’s no perfect routine for a schedule that includes pre-game travel, the lead-up to the game, and then the post-game recovery followed by travel home and preparation for the next game.
The club’s high-performance manager and his team, in consultation with coaches and players, will try to coordinate the most ideal routine but then continue to tinker with the schedule, especially if they aren’t getting results, over the course of a year.
As a player, you soon get to know a routine you are agreeable with within the confines of the team build-up and schedule.
Young players might learn the hard way not to over-indulge at the hotel smorgasbord – this should remain in check. Little things like taking my own pillow with me on the trip used to make an unfamiliar hotel bed more comfortable.
We have already travelled four times in the first 10 rounds with mixed results: two one-sided games against Port Adelaide and Brisbane (in the wet) and two encouraging performances against the two Sydney teams. There will be much that has been learned especially by a team with so many young players beginning their AFL journey.
Depending on it being a day or night game, the key questions are:
Do we travel the day before or two days before the game?
Players that have bodies that don’t pull up that well after a flight may well go two days before anyway. Also, players that were recruited from that state may be allowed to go earlier to catch up with family. The length of travel, like Sydney as opposed to Perth, may impact the decision.
Will the game-day schedule change much?
The question of leaving players to their own devices in the morning or getting them up and moving as a group is one that can change from time to time. The different time zones that occur from the east to west coast may also be taken into consideration with clubs sometimes deciding to stick with their ‘home’ Greenwich Mean Time.
When will we schedule team strategy meetings?
Most knock them over on the eve of the game to give the players clean space on the day of the game. Some clubs will have another one in the hour just before leaving the hotel for the game, so the players are free to then individually prepare at the ground. It is important for the coaching staff to get the balance right and not just have a meeting for meeting’s sake.
Over my years as an assistant coach, we often used interstate travel to go to local games. It gave us the chance to see prospective draftees live so that we could see first-hand who our recruiters were talking about. It made good use of our time, and importantly kept us out of the hair of our players.
I remember watching a teenage Jack Darling kick six goals for West Perth at Joondalup in only his second WAFL game. A raw but exciting Nic Naitanui for Swan Districts and Adam Cooney also starring for West Adelaide in his first game both impressed.
The ‘why’s’ and ‘what for’s’ of the travel schedule must be explained to the players so they understand the benefits and advantages they’ll get going into the game.
At Brisbane our high-performance manager had an airline pilot neighbour who ‘just happened’ to be rostered on to pilot our flights for a period. We flew at a lower altitude than normal (not sure the airline company knew - shhh) and recorded data showed that our players’ average heart rates beat at 10 beats less per minute. It maybe was just a placebo effect, but our players certainly were on board that they may have been getting an advantage.
So we come to the game.
It is imperative to get a good start to quell the opposition crowd and reduce the effect of the ground being turned into an uncomfortable cauldron. Having said that, it is important not to panic if things don’t go your way early and to stick to the plan and attempt to get it back on level terms as soon as possible. Hanging in there as long as possible can influence the result.
In the old days, post-match it might have been a chance to experience the bright lights of another city. The question for some players though was whether they packed their jeans or footy gear first.
These days clubs control the importance of commencing a ‘deluxe’ recovery to start preparing for next week’s game. The post-match nutrition and hydration, then stretching and massage, and then a good night’s sleep are paramount.
It will have been pre-decided whether the team flies back as soon as possible (sometimes on the red-eye flight) so players can get back into their own beds, or stays another night to be better rested before flying.
I have always found we have really good support from our vast numbers of Essendon supporters that live interstate or make the trip from Victoria. It doesn’t take them much to be up and about and be in full voice.
Who can forget round 14, 2018 at Optus Stadium, where we unexpectedly kicked the first eight goals of the game? My Essendon mate, Thommo, had travelled from North Ringwood and we were both in raptures as the 51,000 Eagles crowd were stunned into silence.
I can’t wait to see what our exciting young team can deliver this weekend.
As Sinatra also once sang, ‘The best is yet to come’.
Until next time, up, up and away,
GO’D
Gary O'Donnell played 243 games from 1987 to 1998, leading the Bombers as captain for two seasons in a decorated career in the red and black. Known as 'Mr Reliable', he was a vital part of Essendon's 1993 premiership side - a year which also saw him win the Crichton Medal as the Bombers' best and fairest. Blending tales of the past with the present, he'll be a contributor to essendonfc.com.au in 2021.
