GOLD Coast players are encouraged to drink up to five litres of fluid following matches in Darwin before they go to bed.

That’s no easy feat. In Saturday night’s win over St Kilda, they walked off TIO Stadium at 9.30pm local time and immediately started preparing for the upcoming match against Yartapuulti six days later.

And that means putting the weight back on they lost in the previous 120 minutes of action.

Darwin is like no other stop on the AFL calendar with its high heat and humidity and a lot goes into preparing players for two games in six days.

Over the past five years of heading to the Top End, Gold Coast’s high-performance manager, Alex Rigby, and his team have refined the method they think not only prepares the Suns to adapt to the conditions but helps them to bounce back for a second game the week after.

Although there’s a lot more that goes into winning, the Suns have an unblemished 9-0 record since taking two games a season to Darwin in 2022.

Rigby told AFL.com.au his team sat down collectively that year to discuss the challenges of the trip and engaged the help of South Australia Sports Institute performance science project lead, Jamie Stanley.

“He’s worked with some of the best athletes in the world over the past few years, swimmers and cyclists … and done a lot of his research in heat acclimation,” Rigby said.

“We engaged with Jamie to see what we needed to be doing and what we needed to be avoiding. 

“We’re not experts in the field, but we wanted to get some of the best involved and Jamie’s one of those.”

The preparation for Darwin starts three weeks out when Gold Coast players begin heat acclimation through saunas and hot baths.

They are given the option to do one or the other following a training session early in the week (they don’t stress the body like this within 48 hours of a match).

“We probably steered more towards the passive acclimation strategy rather than purely active ones,” Rigby said.

“I think the best way to do it is coming off a training session and do a passive top-up, rather than doing a bike in the heat room. That just puts too much stress on your body.”

The natural environment in south-east Queensland also helps, with the round six game against Essendon played at lunch time in 26-degree, 70 per cent humidity and the round eight game against Greater Western Sydney in 80 per cent humidity.

The Suns see it as acclimatising – and can dial back their own work during the week – rather than a detriment to their long-term performance.

In-game in Darwin they’re conscious of “fuelling”. In colder climates it might be a sip here and there to hydrate, but Suns players are reminded to top-up on carbohydrate when they head to the bench at TIO Stadium.

It’s all part of having an awareness for not just the now, but later.

Players might lose two to three per cent of their body weight (two to three kilograms) when they play in Queensland or Melbourne. Darwin is a different beast.

“They can lose five to seven kilos, easily. The big boys are losing that,” Rigby said.

“If you’re losing that amount of body weight, you need to replace it with that amount of fluid.

“The processes are probably the same, but the urgency around what’s required and the detail is probably a little different up here.

“That next couple of hour period is crucial. Directly post-game it’s getting fluid and protein and carbohydrate in straight away.

“It’s a pretty simple equation - if you’re losing five kilos, you need to replace it with that amount of fluid over the next three to four hours. It’s a lot.”

Gold Coast will “pre-cool” before the match with icy poles and slushy drinks, which help lower their core body temperature, and will do likewise post-match.

Players that sweat a lot will also pre-load with extra sodium, dialled in during the weeks before so as to not upset their stomach on game day.

And while opposition teams using the cooling room on the TIO boundary line, don’t expect to see the Suns doing that – physically they’ve adapted and mentally it’s an edge.

Players will be monitored closely in the days following a match, and working with coach Damien Hardwick, the high-performance team will adjust any individuals accordingly if they’re showing signs of fatigue or are not back to their usual weight.

“We have been really successful up here, but the toll it takes post-travel is something we’ve been identifying as a period that we need to adjust,” Rigby said.

“When we first came up here, our period post Darwin … was quite unsuccessful. It takes its toll.”

The Suns have had a mid-season bye in the month following their two matches in Darwin, but have never won more than one match in that period.

“We’ve done a lot of research and investigations into what our schedule looks like post Darwin and how much recovery we give them.

“We probably measure the success of the trip based on what it looks like post trip, rather than what it looks like up here.

“We’re trying to prepare for the end of the season and ensuring our squad is in good health for the whole season.”

Following Friday night’s game, Gold Coast plays North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium, has a bye and then faces 2025 Grand Finalists Brisbane (home) and Geelong (away) in a stretch of matches that could show just where they stack up this year.