By Rohan Connolly
Round 12 of the AFL season was significant for a number of reasons, Sydney sounding a warning, Port Adelaide moving into the top four, Melbourne making a big statement at the expense of a reigning premier who is finding the going increasingly tough.
But it was also a weekend that defied whatever passes for the norm in this crazy season. Which has been that travelling teams are doing it tough.
The Swans' comeback victory over Richmond at the MCG and Carlton's win over Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium meant that at least two of the four teams faced with road trips emerged with the points.
Geelong still fell in Perth to West Coast and Brisbane came unstuck at Adelaide Oval. But this season, even a 50 per cent strike rate seems like a landmark.
The Giants are the AFL's best road warriors for 2017. Credit: Getty Images
So far this year, all 18 teams have played a total of 80 matches interstate. They've managed to win just 31. And even that tally includes victories by North Melbourne and Hawthorn in their second Tasmanian homes.
Melbourne are the only team with a 100 per cent record outside their home state. And that probably has as much to do with the fact the Demons have thus far left Victoria just twice, beating Gold Coast in Alice Springs, and the Crows at Adelaide Oval, one that may well prove pivotal in their bid for a first finals spot for more than a decade.
Just three other teams are going at better than 50 per cent on the road. Adelaide have won three of their five games interstate, and Greater Western Sydney who have notched four wins in seven road trips (which includes two games in Canberra).
Collingwood, while having so far only got on a plane three times, have won twice, in Sydney against the Swans and in Perth against Fremantle, and lost the other game only in the final minute against the Giants.
Both of the Adelaide sides have rated brilliantly when it comes to playing outside of their home state. Credit: Morne de Klerk
The poorest performers? Brisbane, perhaps not surprisingly given their current circumstances, the Lions 0-6 outside Queensland. But there's a few other teams with higher aspirations for whom these figures are a major worry.
The Western Bulldogs have enough worries whatever the venue at 6-6. But the fact that four of those six defeats have come on the road is indicative of that extra degree of resilience gone missing this season.
The Dogs ended up with a 5-2 interstate record last season, two of those wins, memorably, in finals. This season, they've lost twice in Perth, in Canberra and at the SCG.
And they still have three more road trips ahead of them in their last 10 games, the most ominous to Adelaide in three weeks to play the Crows, followed by two games in Queensland against the Lions and Suns, two assignments that at the start of the season looked a lot more negotiable hurdles than they appear now.
West Coast, in three years under Adam Simpson's coaching, had, despite their issues on the MCG, still won more than half their 30-plus games on the road. That's changed in 2017, the Eagles victorious just twice in six road trips to date.
Of their remaining 10 games, six are at Domain Stadium, three at Etihad Stadium, and one at the Giants' Spotless Stadium. Three of those in Perth are against top-eight sides in Melbourne, Port Adelaide and Adelaide, plus an always-tight derby against Fremantle.
If West Coast can't win at least a couple of those away, their September hopes are in serious trouble, particularly if they drop this week's clash with the Demons, another great test for Melbourne, too.
The Demons' road record over the past three completed seasons has been hideous, just four wins from 18 games. Nothing would indicate a more serious coming of age than that win in Adelaide earlier this season backed up by one at Domain Stadium, a regular black hole into which they've now tumbled 17 times in a row, their last victory way back in 2004.
And with more road trips to follow to Darwin (against Adelaide), Hobart and Canberra, Melbourne would attack the rest of this season with complete confidence in their ability to win anytime, anywhere.
That was the mantra Ross Lyon's Fremantle adopted on their way to a 2013 grand final appearance. But "road warriors" seem harder to find this season. The teams that best negotiate their remaining sojourns to hostile territory may well end up with rewards more material than just pride in turning that tide back.