Sleep and sunlight will be Port Adelaide’s biggest weapons against its massive month of travel

PORT Adelaide is targeting sleep and sunlight as its biggest weapons to combat the fatigue factor in a huge month of travel.

Port Adelaide captain Travis Boak is ready for the Power’s big travel schedule. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty

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FOUR games, eight flights, 37 hours in the air and 21,480km travelled across 29 days — these are the “logistic nightmare” numbers facing Port Adelaide as it enters its globetrotting month of the 2018 AFL season.

The Power will on Sunday return to Adelaide from Perth in what is the first leg of a marathon five-round stretch that will also take the club to its second stint in Shanghai and an away game against Hawthorn in Launceston on June 2.

Add in the year’s first Showdown on Saturday and the man charged with preparing Ken Hinkley’s men to be healthy and in peak physical condition, new Port head of high performance Ian McKeown, is expecting several restless nights.

“I’m not sure how much sleep I’ll get on that flight over (to Shanghai),” McKeown says. “I’ll either crash or be up strolling the aisles.

“The main challenge for us is being able to maintain the level of fitness and health throughout this period — not getting sick.

“Travelling lots, not sleeping, staying in different rooms, then getting your snot smashed in playing a game of footy in the middle of it — if you could write the perfect storm on how to get sick, that’s what you would do, so you’ve got to mitigate as many of those risks as possible.”

McKeown, in his sixth year at Alberton, was part of former high-performance boss Darren Burgess’s team as head of athletic development during last year’s China debut.

The Northern Irishman’s also has a background in national European sport and with the Australian Institute of Sport through programs including the Matildas women’s soccer team.

That experience gives him the confidence Port Adelaide is as well prepared as it can be for the looming month.

Port captain Travis Boak road tests business class seats ahead of the Power’s flight to Shanghai. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty

“It’s a logistic challenge, is the best way to put it,” McKeown says.

“The first thing (to pack) is a mindset to be resilient, to take everything thrown at us and be as flexible as we can be.

“The only thing that is worse than travelling long-haul is travelling long-haul and being stressed about it.”

Power players are following a strict program of probiotic and prebiotic supplements to counter the effects of their heavy travel schedule, while Mother Nature will be crucial to curbing any jet lag from their overnight flight from Melbourne to Shanghai.

“We’ll do a session the day we arrive, to help get all the toxins and lethargy out of the system,” McKeown says.

“Fingers crossed, we get some sunlight — we have to make sure we expose ourselves to sunlight so the body clock is as set as possible.”

As well, a lucky few players including talls Charlie Dixon, Paddy Ryder and Justin Westhoff are booked to travel business class during the international leg to cater for their larger frames.