Every club searches for an edge - the little wins that can ultimately lead to premiership success.
Beyond the weight rooms, whiteboards and footballs, travel plays a significant role in performance, as businesses and elite sporting clubs alike look for smarter ways to travel. Efficiency and reliability can easily become a competitive advantage.
The difference between a win and a loss is crucial in the AFL, where even the smallest margins can shape a season, and across the second half of the season, Hawthorn is the only Victorian club that sits amongst the interstate sides with the burden of travel leading into the 2026 AFL Finals.
Much has been made of non-Victorian clubs hitting the tarmac more often than not to participate in the national competition, but from Round 11 onwards, the Hawks will become accustomed to turbulence and the high altitude.
As is the norm, the western and northernmost clubs in West Coast, Fremantle and the Suns, rank at the top of the AFL travel ladder. They will each accumulate over 2000 minutes of airtime between now, and when the season concludes.
Hawthorn rank seventh for the most minutes still to be travelled by plane, with six interstate trips coming over the remainder of the AFL season.
On the contrary, Carlton's favourable fixture will extend through the end of the AFL's home and away season, jumping on a plane only two times for the remainder of the year for a total of 345 minutes in the air.
Richmond could utilise the lack of travel to its advantage to notch up a couple of more wins, while St Kilda, vying for a finals appearance, won't be leaving the state often, having already played four times interstate, and their final two travels coming in the next three weeks. Could a home-based run home be their secret weapon?
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