Western Bulldogs senior coach Luke Beveridge says the team is keen to return to the Top End this weekend.
The Bulldogs hold a positive record in Darwin, having won seven of their past 10 games at TIO Stadium, but suffered a narrow seven-point loss to the Gold Coast SUNS in their most recent visit.
Beveridge said while the humidity will be a factor, they won’t do anything out of the normal to adapt.
“We won’t overplay it. We’ll have the opportunity for a Captain’s Run on the Friday afternoon, which will be just before the time that we end up playing on the Saturday night and (a similar) experience to what the conditions might be like,” he told media on Tuesday morning.
“We won’t do too much (to acclimatise). It’s a bit like playing at Metricon or even the Gabba sometimes – the humidity can make the balls pretty wet from the sweat off the players basically.
“Both teams will have to contend with that, and that’s the way we’ll approach it.”
Beveridge didn’t expect the team to change too dramatically either, following a 90-point thumping of Port Adelaide last weekend, but admitted they will need to be wary of Gold Coast’s midfield.
“We’ve already got a lot of run in our team. We probably went in one key position player shorter last week with Jedd (Busslinger) being the sub,” he said.
“The team won’t really change much unless something untoward happens over the next couple of days. We can’t be careful with training – we can’t be risk averse with our training plans and the actual drills in it – but we’re mindful we’ll turn up Thursday, train here and then get to the airport pretty quickly to fly out.
“We really have a lot of respect for probably their core three in Matt Rowell, Noah Anderson and Touk Miller. They are complementing guys who go in there like Bailey Humprey and a couple of others - they are all pretty important players for them, and we saw last week what kind of effect a Zak Butters type can have just in the space of 10 minutes.
“With the way we are going, (the Suns) will do their homework to get the upper hand. When you’ve got some resistance from a combative midfield early in the piece it’s always a huge challenge.
“It’ll be a fascinating battle (between Tim English and Jarrod Witts) within the scheme of the game.”
The Bulldogs will debut their 2025 First Nations guernseys for the clash this Saturday night, designed by Kamilya Lowana White, an Aboriginal artist born and raised in Naarm with Kija Bardi heritage.
“(The jumpers) are quite impressive. I know the players are looking forward to wearing them up north, and our record up there is pretty good as a club,” Beveridge said.
“There’s Naomi Ferres, one of our women’s players, and then there’s Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, Liam Jones, Ryley Sanders and Arty Jones. All of their totems are represented, and also the meeting places which are quite symbolic when you think about football clubs and the cultural piece of coming together.
“We’re immersing ourselves in some Indigenous culture this week too. The smoking ceremony was really just to identify with the fact we’ve got a new jumper, and there’s a freshness and symbolism attached to that.”
