Players to rack up lot of flying

THE North Queensland Cowboys will have been forced to travel a gruelling 16,600km if they make this year’s NRL grand final. The Townsville team flew to Allianz Stadium to face the Sharks on Sunday, winning the nailbiting clash in extra time with a field goal by Michael Morgan. This week, the team will again fly to Sydney to face the Eels in a semi- final.

If they win that game they will again fly to Sydney for a preliminary final against the Roosters. Another win would see them fly the 2075km to Sydney for a fourth time to play in the grand final.

Cowboys high performance manager Paul Bowman admitted the flights were a disadvantage to the team but said the club wasn’t going to use it as an excuse.

“We’ve had to do that all year – and since we came into the competition,” he said.

“We have plenty of strategies such as extra recovery time to counter the fatigue. It is definitely easier for those Sydney sides who don’t have to travel.

“If we know we’ve got a long flight we are smart about it.”

He said flying did take a toll on the athletes.

Bowman said players suffered from increased fatigue and stiffness from sitting in a plane for hours.

He said the players did light training yesterday and would again do light training today.

“We’ll review the game and what we did well and what we can improve on, and do extra recovery training in the morning,” he said.