A SACRIFICE and an opportunity.

Coming up to two weeks in their Gold Coast tenure, the Blues are beginning to settle into the rhythm of hub life.

While making the Sunshine State feel like Ikon Park is a challenge, Club Psychologist Tarah Kavanagh believes the playing group is embracing the opportunity.

“The morale of the group is good. I think they’ve got over the original shock and disruption of the announcement and settled down and are now in performance mode,” Kavanagh said.

Opting to bring the entire squad to Queensland, Kavanagh framed the move as an invaluable team-building opportunity ahead of the upcoming rounds.

“Having the whole group here is really important for us,” she said.

“We felt that if we brought all players and staff that it sends a pretty powerful message to them that they belong, they’re part of the team. 

“When people feel like they belong, they’re motivated to perform.”

From a player welfare perspective, there is more opportunity than ever to check in and ensure the group is adjusting to what is a significant shift in routine.

“The great thing about being in this environment is that we can actually check in with the players every day,” she said.

“We get to do a lot of things informally and build our relationships with them.”

The real challenge facing the Blues will be the time spent away from the process and support of home. 

“They’ve got everything set up at home. They’ve got their social support, their outlets, their habits and so to suddenly remove all of those, it is a challenge,’’ she said.

“AFL players, they tend to be quite structured and that normally serves them quite well. This year’s different for everybody, we’ve got to be really agile and open so it’s really asking something different of them this year.”