WHEN it comes to Top End footy, preparation is key.

Both Essendon and Richmond have been putting in the work over the past month to help acclimatise to playing in hot and humid conditions, coming out of a Melbourne winter.

Friday's forecast for the first bounce is 27 degrees, with 73 per cent humidity – not quite as brutal as last year's October match, which was held in "the build up", just before the wet season.

Richmond AFLW high performance manager, Eliza Morrison, draws on her own four seasons playing in the NTFL, as well as experienced garnered in last year's game, when it comes to planning for the match.

Slushies – somewhat vaguely labelled as "Gatorade flavour" – were "practiced" during the captain's run, right down to the pre and post-session timing of hydration.

"We learned more about in-game, just how important it is for the players to remain calm and conserve energy where they can," Morrison said.

"Last year, in our minds, it was a little more challenging because it was later in the year, in terms of cumulative fatigue from the season. We're really excited with it being in round three this year, so hopefully less pre-existing fatigue

"Hydralite is the big one. Even when I played here, we'd play on a Saturday, and from Thursday onwards, all I'd consume is hydralite, with some water on the side. 

"Then you've also got to think about post-game as well. The benefit of round three is we have much better weather out here, there's not as much pre-existing fatigue, but we've hopefully got 10 more rounds to go."

For Morrison, the pre-game heat training is a fine balance between a focus on the round three fixture without negatively affecting rounds one and two.

"We started our acclimation about four weeks ago, a combination of passive and active immersion in the heat. We had them in saunas at the club, and also heat bikes as well, which we were able to bring in as part of our recovery," she said.

"The big rocks are the main thing – if they can still eat, sleep and hydrate really well, it takes it to another level as to what will help them on the ground."

Essendon's AFLW head of strength and conditioning, Steve Norman, said the Bombers had employed similar tactics.

"It's chilly in Melbourne, so it's finding ways to expose the girls to some warmer climates, whether it's some bike rooms with the heaters pumping, or the saunas, whatever it may be. Then in terms of prep, once we're up here, it's about nailing the hydration in the days coming in. On top of that, it's giving them resources to cool them down in the breaks, before and after the game," Norman said.

"We've been doing one session a week for the past three weeks, then today (training) is round about the time we're going to play, just a little bit earlier and warmer, so get out and move in the heat, and hope they get used to it."

Each interchange bench has an "ice room" directly behind the seating, which players will use during the breaks and even while the game in action, if required.

"We definitely took away from learnings around fatigue and rotation time on the bench, who deals well with it and who doesn't deal as well with in, and strategies around cooling," Norman said.

"Even perceptually for them, the ice room is good just to get out of the heat. Even if it doesn't necessarily cool their core temperature down too much, just getting into the ice room and feeling like the air is a little bit cooler is a mental break."