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Travel is the ugly reality facing West Coast's grand final bid and managing it could be crucial

Analysis By Tom Wildie

Reigning premiers West Coast face a substantial travel burden to retain the trophy this year.

AAP: Julian Smith

Travel. It's a dirty word to all West Coast fans this AFL finals series.

It's also the reality awaiting the reigning premiers.

To win back-to-back flags, and become the first non-Victorian side to win the premiership from outside the top-four under the current finals model, the Eagles will need to travel across the country five times before grand final day.

Travel is part and parcel of professional, national sports competitions worldwide, and its impact on performance is a concern for elite sporting organisations.

The toll it takes on the players is clear.

Instead of being able to go into the club and begin recovery the day after a bruising encounter, the players are herded onto a plane, where they remain stuck for three or four hours.

Physiological impacts can't be ignored

One literary review conducted last year found short-haul flights, under six hours, impeded performance and increased the risk of injury in America's National Basketball Association (NBA).

In 2013, the British Journal of Sports Medicine also conducted a review of studies, and found that the more time zones crossed, the fewer goals that were scored in Australia's national netball competition.

The BJSM review, conducted by Whitney Leatherwood and Jason Dragoo, also found the performance by Major League Baseball (MLB) teams declined when they travelled across multiple time zones.

It could be argued that home ground advantage has some role in teams performing poorly on the road, but there are physiological impacts that can't be ignored.

The authors suggested disruption to the circadian rhythm, which is the natural, internal process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours, played a part, along with the stress of flying.

Aeroplane cabins have a lower oxygen saturation than sea-level, meaning there is less oxygen to breath in.

This results in hypoxic stress, or a lack of oxygen at a cellular level, directly impacting the muscles ability to recover while travelling.

None of this is news to professional sporting sides, which have tried various techniques to reduce the impact of travel.

The Perth Wildcats routinely try to stay on WA time to reduce the impact of travel when playing multiple games in a weekend, while Australian Rules sides often send older players over earlier to allow longer recovery from the trip.

Some teams travel two days before a game, which is generally the case for the WA sides, but it depends on what time of the day their matches are.

Why not set up camp in Melbourne?

One way to combat the effects of travel is to not travel at all.

West Coast could move its entire operation to Melbourne, and effectively live there until the grand final, assuming they make it that far.

It seems like a simple answer to a complicated problem, but according to three-time premiership coach Mick Malthouse, it's not a practical solution.

Malthouse battled with the challenge of repetitive travel when he was coach of West Coast in 1990, when the Eagles played six consecutive matches in the east.

"You've got to get into your own environment as often and as best as you can," he told ABC Sports Talk.

"They'll probably go over two days early, but the three weeks is just excessive."

It's not unheard of that AFL clubs try to negate travel by eliminating a return to their home city.

Geelong tried to do it earlier this year when they spent a week in Perth following a match on the Gold Coast, while the Suns did the same last year when they sold a game to Fremantle.

Both sides were comprehensively beaten.

"You've got 18-year-olds to 30-something year-olds, some married with young kids, and some just needing their own bed," Malthouse said.

Plane charter could be an option

The Eagles could mitigate the impact of travel by deciding exactly when they fly by chartering a plane — something they did when they played the Cats in Geelong earlier this year.

It would mean they could exercise on the plane without disrupting fellow travellers, and wouldn't be slave to the scheduled flights of commercial operators.

Whatever they decide, there's no doubt the challenge of travel will be front and centre for the club's administrators and sports scientists.

How they manage it could go a long way to determining how far they into finals they go.

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