7 minutes ago, old dee said:

That must be the understatement of the week Mr. Leg

I am known for being understated.

17 hours ago, Pickett2Jackson said:

Surely we did not fly up on the day... surely.  Swans there for 2 days before us?

WTF is going on and whens something going to be done about it

Reminds me of 2018 and not spending enough time in Perth.

17 hours ago, Hogan2014 said:

Hate making excuses but who knows , you jump on a plane early morning all the time involved plus flight time then racing to get to the ground to prepare with different humidity vs a team who woke up in the morning & turned up to the game to play as normal .. 

Agreed. I reckon this would impact any team. 

We looked off at first bounce.

Game prep....mind set is crucial.

8 hours ago, At the break of Gawn said:

Sydney were in Cairns on Saturday, and were training at Cazaly for a couple of days.

 

That would explain the differences in kicking for goal accuracy. Used to the breeze. 

It’s just all too hard. Give us a mental challenge and we crumble to any crap side.

Scheduling plays a huge part of this year,one of the teams we are competing for a spot in the 8 are the Bulldogs,their fixture is:

 

Metricon Stadium-Round 5,6,7,8,9,11(Gabba)12,13,14,15(Bye)16

On 9/4/2020 at 9:04 AM, SFebes said:

Still no excuses, they're professional athletes, know how to prepare. It's not as if they flew all the way from Russia. Excuses is why this club is P-weak. Effort is a non-negotiable, 2hr flight doesn't excuse not trying. On top of that, the club should've kicked up a stink, in the media, like McGuire does, but obviously said "yes Gil." SYD are bottom 4 and missing some of their best players, now come on.

Exactly SF - people are just looking for excuses.

Port flew down on the day they played us.

Goody has mentioned our fitness coach has experience in the EPL & short turnarounds.

They were lethargic from the get go.

19 minutes ago, Cranky Franky said:

Exactly SF - people are just looking for excuses.

Port flew down on the day they played us.

Goody has mentioned our fitness coach has experience in the EPL & short turnarounds.

They were lethargic from the get go.

I'd rather be looking for reasons why 22 blokes turned up half asleep rather than just saying 'excuses, excuses' and putting the boot in.   

But by way of excuses (or reasons why) perhaps leaving by bus and plane (and I assume another bus) by 7am to play at 4:40pm was worse than the travel done by Port.  And then Port are a far better side, so more likely to win regardless of travel factors, whereas in our case it could be the straw that broke the camel's back).

I don't like making excuses, but from a personal experience in Cairns, I was there last summer and dropped off a rental car and then walked back to meet my wife.I walked about a kilometre along the main street, so there was intermittent shade and when I got back I felt absolutely sick. I felt like I had run a marathon. I was just drinking cold water and resting. Yes I am not as fit as the footballers and much older, but I do regularly walk for an hour or longer and I have never had this reaction. The humidity in Cairns is a killer.

After that day of travel with an early start probably 5.00 am, playing on a windy ground they have probably never seen before, against a side that has had 2 days to acclimatize and able to get up at a normal time in routine, train on the ground and get used to the conditions,  all off a short turnaround from the previous game and having got to bed at 5.00 am a few days earlier from the Alice Springs game, well that is simply unfair.

We seem to have played at more grounds, with more short breaks and travel than most other teams and that has to affect the players. 

 

Edited September 5, 20205 yr by Redleg

Has always amazed me how international soccer teams can deal with the two leg matches across continents.

In October 2017 I went down to Melaka to watch the Socceroos play Syria in a play off to make the world cup. Syria had based itself in Malaysia for that years campaign due to the war in their own country. Few of its players were playing in international leagues so they had been here a while.

Members of the Australian team flew in from all around the world 2 days before the game. As usual the temperature was 32-34 and the humidity in excess of 70%. The pitch was not lawn but more like very rough buffalo grass.

Australia drew that first leg 1-1 that night and then two days later were playing the return leg in a very cold Sydney. They won and were off to Russia.

AFL players have it easy

The travel arrangements for our Sydney game in Cairns were appalling and put us at a disadvantage, but I can't become upset about that because the result was so predictable. It was entirely in keeping with how this group has performed in the past. That for me says the travel was only a minor factor. The bigger issue is in the players' heads.

1 hour ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Has always amazed me how international soccer teams can deal with the two leg matches across continents.

In October 2017 I went down to Melaka to watch the Socceroos play Syria in a play off to make the world cup. Syria had based itself in Malaysia for that years campaign due to the war in their own country. Few of its players were playing in international leagues so they had been here a while.

Members of the Australian team flew in from all around the world 2 days before the game. As usual the temperature was 32-34 and the humidity in excess of 70%. The pitch was not lawn but more like very rough buffalo grass.

Australia drew that first leg 1-1 that night and then two days later were playing the return leg in a very cold Sydney. They won and were off to Russia.

AFL players have it easy

I'm no scientist, and I'm guessing neither are you, but maybe there's a different impact on players' bodies to playing a match of AFL, a (highly) contact sport with a large field, than playing soccer?