CARLTON might be heading Sydney-side a few days earlier than expected, but it’s business as usual as the side prepares for its Round 11 clash.
Flying out this afternoon in response to Victoria’s latest COVID cluster, the team will continue preparations for its match with the Swans in New South Wales.
Speaking to media ahead of the Blues’ flight to Sydney on Wednesday, Carlton Head of Football Brad Lloyd is confident the travelling squad will be galvanised by the time away.
“We’re excited about getting up to Sydney, it’s obviously a serious situation in Melbourne but in terms of getting up, we can prepare together, we’ll get together and have some meetings, get our training done and prepare for the game,” Lloyd said.
“Getting the group together culturally and all those sorts of things, I don’t think it will have an impact and hopefully it enhances us from a team point of view.”
Having spent the second half of their 2020 campaign in a hub, the staff and players are no strangers to process on the road.
Mobilising late on Tuesday evening, both the travelling party are is prepared for the next five days preparation to be completed interstate.
“We found out pretty quickly and went into similar processes we followed last year being on the road. Jumped on our messaging service and got to the playing group and staff and instructed them that we’ll be heading off the next day,” he said.
“It’s been pretty busy from there with flights and accommodation and getting everyone organised.
“It’s pretty early in the week so we hadn’t finalised a team or a squad – I was working through that process, luckily at the time I was with Andrew Russel, ‘Teaguey’, Len Villani and Cain Liddle our CEO.
“So what was a bit of catch up turned into a meeting and a bit of match committee and a number of things all rolled into one.”
With a team yet to be selected for the Blues’ Round 11 clash with Sydney, a number of additional players will travel with the group ahead of squad selection on Thursday and finals teams being released on Friday.
Defender Lachie Plowman was not amongst the travelling Blues, set to miss this week's game with a corkie.
“We had to move fairly quickly so we’ve probably taken a few extra than we normally would on a trip,” he said.
“Our VFL team is preparing to play on the Sunday as well, so those players if that game goes ahead will be ready to go for that game as well. So we’ve taken a few extras and hopefully they’re ready to go for a VFL game on Sunday as well.
“Lachie received a cork to the knee in the first half of last week so we had to make a decision today whether to bring him. We really had to bring match committee forward so we’ve decided not to bring him over for the game this weekend.”
