SUNS ON THE ROAD
THEY TRAVELLED HOW FAR?
IT’S the sliding doors moment that will continue to plague the Suns for years to come.
If the fledgling AFLW side had been handed an easier travel schedule could they have gone deeper into finals?
It’s an interesting question, and one we’ll probably never know the answer to because, as coach David Lake said after his side were defeated by 70 points by Fremantle, “travel isn’t like a statistic, you can’t measure it”.
What we do know for certain is that back-to-back trips to Perth is tough … extremely tough. And they came on the back of trips to Melbourne and Mackay with no respite of a home fixture in between.
Instead of wondering and wishing, we decided to conduct a deep dive into each team’s AFLW travel schedule and confirm once and for all who had the rough end of the stick in 2020.
The kilometres travelled have been calculated using a distance calculator that calculates the strait line gap between each city and distances were based on round trips.
In 2020, the Suns made road trips to Sydney in Round 1, Melbourne in Round 4, Mackay in Round 5, Perth in Round 6 and then back to Perth for their semi-final against Fremantle.
Those four trips, including frightening back-to-back fixtures in Perth, added up to a remarkable 20,322km.
To put that into context, the West Coast Eagles AFL side travelled 56,704km in their 2018 premiership season which consisted of 22 home and away games. The Suns women played seven.
So if you take the kilometres and divide them out by rounds played, the Suns travelled 2903km each round whereas the Eagles clocked up 2577km a week.
Now back to the AFLW. The Suns’ final figure of 20,322km makes them the most travelled team in the competition this season.
Coming in second is fellow expansion side the West Coast Eagles who travelled 17,472km, albeit playing one less game than the Suns.
Queensland rivals Brisbane sit third with 12,978km thanks to trips to Geelong, Perth, Melbourne and a sneaky drive down the M1.
Most Melbourne-based sides pale in comparison, averaging only 1.75 trips outside their home state in 2020.
Putting pure numerals aside, the Suns also had to contend with the AFLW’s scariest trend.
Not once in 2020 did a team win the week after playing in Perth.
Call it the “Wicked West” but on all four occasions where a team ventured to Perth to play, they lost the following week.
So should the AFLW have sent the Suns back to Perth on a six-day turn around and with only 36 hours’ notice?
If the Suns wanted to play finals, they had to play with the hand they were dealt.
One thing is for certain, the Suns, they wouldn’t use travel as an excuse even on their last ounce of breath.