Melbourne assistant coach Brian Royal gives an insight into the planning and preparation taking place for Melbourne’s trek to the Northern Territory to play Port Adelaide in Round 17.

Firstly, the preparation has been critical, particularly coming off the bye.  Last time we came off the bye, as much as the guys were fresh, their mindset coming away from the bye wasn’t where it should have been.  So, this time around, we’ve changed our training program to reinforce that when we come back we are physically and mentally ready to play.

Heading into the Darwin game, we’re going to take up a squad of 25 players.  There are a few reasons - obviously we’re away for quite a few days, and at this time of year there’s always a bit of illness - flu and the like, so we just need to make sure that everyone’s all right.  So, we’ve got players on standby, just in case.  It also gives you a look at the conditions that you’re going to play in - we know it’s going to be quite humid, and there’s the chance that it might be quite wet as well.  It gives us a bit of room to move.

When you’re doing something so different, it’s really exciting.  You’re going to a part of Australia where some of the players haven’t been before.  That’s exciting as well.  We’re leaving on Thursday morning, and we don’t get back until Sunday night, so it’s a good opportunity for the players to spend some time together as well.  It’s always exciting from that point of view.

Dealing with the conditions is always going to be difficult, because they’re conditions that we only play in once for the year, so from an individual player’s point of view, it’s making sure they prepare individually.  Whether that’s from a sleep point of view and making sure they get fluids into themselves - it’s all important.  We know that the conditions are probably going to be slippery due to the humidity up there - whether you’re wearing a glove or gloves on your hands, whether you’re wearing a sweat band to stop sweat running onto your hands - whatever you do, it’s all about the preparation.

Today, we even spoke about the players changing uniforms at every break, just to make sure they’re fresh and not carrying the sweat and soaking wet jumpers.  We’ve got cool rooms for the players to go in at all the breaks.  So, we’ve tried to cover off as much as we can think of - we’ve been fortunate that Scott West has played up there, so he’s spoken about his experiences, and obviously the group played up there last year against Port Adelaide as well.

It’s exciting for Liam Jurrah to be going home to play, in front of a lot of people who know him, and even more, probably idolise him.  We know he’s excited about that, too.  Where our footy club is at the moment, we’ve got some really exciting young kids in our side, and the experience of going to Darwin is great for them.  You’re talking about the likes of James Strauss and Daniel Nicholson - it’ll be their first time playing up there, and it will be a great experience for them and everyone involved.