Darwin. 

Whenever I get off the plane in Darwin I am made unsteady by two things: the hyper-coloured tropical theme carpet throughout the arrival lounge and that thick musty scent of the tropics. 

These two things conspire to affirm that I have arrived in a city unlike any other in Australia.  Just about everything up there has an unsettling quirk and if you are in Darwin with a job to do, you have to work hard to adapt fast, otherwise you’re quickly overcome by a tropical malaise that has you half asleep, slobbing about in loose shorts searching for the next available swimming pool, crisp ale and / or crocodile to swim with. 

I won’t quite go as far as to say that last Saturday night the young Tigers played as though they’d all been overcome as described, but...

The Marrara footy ground is just a few Dustin Martin punts from the airport so here’s my suggestion for the next time (if there ever is one) the Tigers venture to Darwin in search of 4 points. 

To avoid any risk of the onset of said malaise, make it a hit and run raid. Charter a flight that has us landing three hours before the bounce.  Get the lads straight to the ground for a short sharp wake up session.  Change into the match strip, drink plenty of fluids, refrain from going to the loo, get the on ground warm up done, then get stuck into the match with every player under the threat of demotion at the slightest sign of hesitation.  Get back on the plane as soon as the match is done and dusted, and get the hell out of the place before the local way of life has any chance of sinking in. 

In fact, we play in Cairns in a few weeks time, so let’s adopt my avoiding the perils of the tropics strategy straight up.  Note that my strategy is NOT premised upon never playing up there again.  Why? Read on.

There has been some discussion about the decision to switch a home game to Darwin.  We lost, so the general tenor of the chat is that we should not do it.  If we had won the same chattering mobs would be advocating for a yearly trip to see the crocs.  My take on it is that the decision to play on Darwin was right and we should not cringe at it just because we lost the 4 points.  Yes I hear you:  the weekly 4 points mean everything and no avoidable risks should ever be taken.  But - let’s not forget about our club’s long term strategy. 

The goal of a return to perennial dominance relies as much on off field strength as it does on game performances.  We have a strategy to get the club into a much stronger financial position so that we have the resources to compete with the financial powerhouses of competition.  In the interests of the longer term goal, some short term risks (and sacrifices even) will inevitably be taken.  This is the only sensible thing to do.  Let’s not forget how many seasons we’ve wasted looking for short term fixes to our club’s fortunes on and off the field.

So, some patience is required.  We are travelling well this season but we should not let our heightened expectations get the better of us. That would be a greater risk because it would bring unnecessary pressure onto a playing group that still has some learning and work to do.  We still need to generate and sustain a steady consistency across all areas of our match day performance. 

Our endeavour can’t be questioned and we know our game plan, but we have yet to put a complete performance together across an entire match.  When we do that we are going to be unstoppable, but until we do that we need to keep our expectations modest.  If we miss the finals this season, it won’t be because we lost a game in Darwin.  It will be because we are still a young, learning and developing team prone to inconsistency. 

If and when we do make the finals, we want to have earned our place through consistent, high quality effort.  Shallow success is one thing.  Deep success requires the courage to take calculated risks.  We now have personnel on and off the field that know this.  Let’s continue to give them the room and time to do this and it won’t be that long until we are regularly devouring our opposition while their hearts are still beating. 

That is, eating them alive Tigers!  Eating them alive.