NRL Las Vegas: How many kilometres Panthers, Raiders, Warriors and Sharks will have to travel in the first 10 rounds

It’s the equivalent of flying around the entire world – that’s how much the four NRL teams playing in Las Vegas will be travelling as they navigate a gruelling schedule in their opening 10 rounds. SEE THE NUMBERS

It’s the equivalent of flying around the entire world.

That’s how much the four NRL teams playing in Las Vegas will be travelling as they navigate a gruelling travel schedule around their opening 10 rounds.

The jetsetting Sharks are one of the hardest hit among the travelling clubs headed to Las Vegas for the season opener next week, with the team set to play just two games at Shark Park until mid-May.

In between, they travel to Townsville, Perth and Brisbane as well as trips to Canberra and Newcastle in a logistically tricky start to the year that equates to 39,524km.

The earth’s circumference is 40,075km.

It’s a similar story at Canberra, who play just four games at GIO Stadium as well as games in Darwin, Townsville, Gold Coast and Brisbane.

Travelling every few days so early on can take a mental and physical toll, but McInnes wants to take advantage of the camp-like conditions for some quality bonding time.

“The best way to handle something that could be considered a negative is just to get on with it. It is what it is, that’s the schedule,” McInnes says.

“When you’re trying to find your footy over the first 10 rounds, and every team is the same, I see it as a positive to spend a lot of time together.

“There’s real excitement to start the year, and then later on there’s less travel around the time when some guys will be playing rep footy and there’s niggles in the team.

“So that’s a good thing.”

It’s the home life that needs balancing for players with small families.

McInnes has two kids, Noa and Mia, who are old enough to understand his work demands, but it’s harder on new dads, their partners and small children.

Sharks captain Cameron McInnes. Picture: Thomas Lisson

“For me it’s about the group bonding and getting on a deep level with everyone, that’s my task,” says Raiders captain Joey Tapine, who has an almost two-year-old daughter Ilua.

The Raiders have a horror draw to start the season, with coach Ricky Stuart labelling it the worst he’s seen in 22 years of coaching when it was released back in November.

They will cover around 39,544kms of travel in the first 10 rounds, including the 26,000km round trip to Sin City.

“It’s a balance, you’ve got a lot of boys with young families, you don’t want to keep them away from their families for too long,” Tapine says.

“They get agitated and their partners get agitated, and Sticky has talked about that with us.

“Sometimes it’s the footy that drains you, so mental recovery is important.”

THE SCIENCE

As far as international travel with tight turnarounds, Penrith have been there and done that.

They started 2024 with a trip to the UK for the World Club Challenge before returning to play round one against Melbourne less than a fortnight later.

“Coming back, the first session we did was probably one of the hardest sessions because you’re readjusting,” recalls Panthers forward Liam Martin.

“But in a couple of days you’re back onto Australian time and normal life.

“I think we did really well, we lost the World Club Challenge but came back and had a solid start to the season, so I’m sure we can do the same this time.”

The Panthers are preparing for plenty of plane time. Picture: Thomas Lisson

Players and staff will use a revolutionary app called Timeshifter, which helps users beat jet lag by working with the body’s natural circadian rhythm using the same science deployed by NASA astronauts.

It tells you when to sleep, when to use caffeine and when to avoid bright light so you can quickly adjust to the time zone at your destination.

“It’s very detailed, thinking back to the World Club Challenge,” Martin says.

“Everything that went into the schedule to get us to adjust, sleeping at this time on the plane, trying to get us to adjust to the time difference as quickly as possible, and I’m sure we’ll be doing the same thing in Vegas.

“All the staff have had months of planning.”

Blister packs of supplements and sleep aids will be given to each player, as well as a pack with hydralites and everything needed for the flight so there’s no down time once they land in Vegas on Thursday afternoon.

Ricky’s Raiders will play in Townsville and Darwin in the first 10 rounds. Picture: NRL Photos

They will be given the weekend to relax and then train on Monday, where they’re expected to be running on all cylinders ahead of the season opener against Cronulla.

On the return, they have 13 days to prepare for the Roosters at CommBank Stadium.

Of all four Vegas teams, the Panthers have the least demanding schedule.

Across the first 10 rounds the four-time premiers will travel to the US, Melbourne, Brisbane twice and Townsville, but have been helped with five games in Sydney among the chaos.

GLOBETROTTERS

The Warriors are used to the international haul.

Their one way trip from Auckland to Las Vegas is roughly the same distance as two round trips to Townsville – a trip they’ve been making annually over the past four seasons.

After opening the season at Allegiant against Canberra, they travel to Campbelltown, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Wollongong.

But they have four games in New Zealand and one bye across the opening 10 rounds.

“The club is pretty good, other than the flight time, everything else is taken care of for us,” says Dylan Walker.

“We’ve got to clean our boots, put them in a bag, our toiletries get put into a bag.

“We’ve got coaching staff who declare it for us at customs so we don’t have to be at the airport for a long time, we just take our bags and walk through. They make it pretty easy.

“It’s not hard, other than the flight time. If you hate flying, that’s the only hard bit.”

The Warriors are used to a tough travel schedule. Picture: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images

Visiting Vegas is a bucket list opportunity for most players.

But any celebrations worthy of the town will wait until after the game, and even then only if there’s a win.

“It’s no secret Manly and the Roosters had a better time last year, but only because they won,” McInnes says.

“But we’ll be 10 days away from such an important game, round 1, whereas if you’re in Sydney you’re not wasting your time like that.

“We get to have a cool experience, train hard and prepare well and do it in a different environment where you can have some life experience, and that’s the way we’re looking at it.

“For the fans who are going over, go for it, annihilate yourself, do The Hangover and all those sorts of things, but for us, we’ve got a game to play.”