The Gold Coast Suns clocked up more air miles than any other team in 2020, begging the question how far they could have gone
It’s the sliding doors moment that will continue to plague the Suns for years to come. If the Suns had been handed an easier travel schedule, could they have gone deeper into AFLW finals?
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IT’S the sliding doors moment that will continue to plague the Suns for years to come.
If the Suns had been handed an easier travel schedule, could they have gone deeper into AFLW 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 ground 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 analysis was conducted as follows.
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, clocked up 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 compared to the Suns seven.
So if you take the kilometres and divide them out by rounds played, the Suns travelled 2903km per round whereas the Eagles clocked up 2577km a week.
SUNS AFLW POWER RANKINGS: EVERY PLAYER RANKED
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 the Brisbane Lions sit in third with 12,978km thanks to trips to Geelong, Perth, Melbourne and a sneaky drive down the M1 to Metricon.
Fremantle finished fourth with 10,888km while Geelonge rounds out the top five with 9544km.
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 either the Eagles or the Dockers, they lost the following week.
Geelong, Collingwood, the Bulldogs and the Lions all fell victim to the curse throughout the season, essentially dooming the Suns when they had to head back West twice in as many weeks.
SUNS CAPTAIN REVEALS PLAYING FUTURE
So should the AFLW have sent the Suns back to Perth on a six-day turn around and with only 36 hours’ notice?
It’s hard to think of any more daunting task in the footy world, let alone in the Australian sporting landscape.
But if the Suns wanted to play finals, they had to play with the hand they were dealt with although in extremely strange and unprecedented circumstances.
One thing is for certain, it would never happen in any other setting but knowing the Suns, they wouldn’t use travel as an excuse even on their last ounce of breath.
These girls are certified road warriors and must maintain the belief they can handle anything thrown at them…even the title of the AFLW’s most travelled team.
Most travelled teams in the 2020 AFLW season
Suns – 20,322km
Eagles – 17,472km
Brisbane Lions – 12,978km
Fremantle – 10,888km
Geelong - 9544km
Collingwood - 8194km
Adelaide - 6776km
GWS Giants - 6378km
Bulldogs - 5444km
Demons - 5210km
Carlton - 5086km
Richmond - 3694km
Kangaroos - 2070km
St Kilda - 1306km
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