Red-eye special to the rescue for Tigers keen to keep Storm date
Andrew Wu - SMH
June 14, 2011
WESTS Tigers' preparations for their Leichhardt Oval clash with Melbourne on Sunday are in turmoil after a cloud of volcanic ash from Chile left them stranded in New Zealand yesterday, forcing the club to book an indirect flight home via Coolangatta.
The Tigers' first-grade side is not due back in Sydney until this morning, nearly 24 hours after the players' scheduled arrival time, but their under-20s team and off-field staff might not return until this afternoon.
''We've only got 20 seats,'' said football manager Alan Mair.
Coach Tim Sheens, assistant Peter Gentle, Mair and strength and conditioning coach Andrew Leeds were booked to fly with the main squad on a flight set to depart Auckland shortly after 4am today.
The Tigers had considered taking a direct flight to Sydney, which was due to leave today around 12, but were not prepared to risk more cancellations.
''You can't plan for this,'' Mair said. ''Always in the back of your mind there could be strikes and stuff like that but not volcanic ash. Hopefully we're all out of here tomorrow but things can change from day to day. We're even prepared, if this one falls over, we'll just train here tomorrow and get out when we can.''
Barring another disruption, the Tigers plan to give their players today off to recover.
''The early start is the concern and sitting down for 3½ hours might be a problem for us but we're prepared,'' Mair said. ''[The] extra hour, transfers and all that will wear us out a little bit but we're prepared for it and we'll train accordingly. [We'll] give them a bit of a rest and not be as heavy in the gym this week, we'll work through it.
''I think the boys are handling it pretty good. They know there's no other way around it. It's a safety issue and you don't stuff around with safety issues in the air.''
NSW's 18th man, Robbie Farah, arrived in Sydney last night and will train with the Blues today. Earlier he sent out this Tweet: ''On my way home. Lucky to get a flight out. Looks like the rest of the boys will be there for a while yet.''
The NRL will today talk to Melbourne Storm officials to ensure they have a back-up plan in case there are more flight disruptions later this week.
''If it looks like airports might be closed we might look at bus trips where they could take two days to come up,'' said NRL operations boss Nathan McGuirk.
Also of concern are the Warriors' flights for their clash with the Cowboys in Townsville on Saturday night, but McGuirk said the league was not planning a change to the schedule for this round.
Last night's Storm-Roosters game in Melbourne might not have gone ahead had McGuirk not spent Sunday night drawing up travel plans to ensure the five referees arrived in time. The five were forced to fly to Albury early yesterday morning and complete their journey by road.
McGuirk said the NRL would have ''moved heaven and earth'' if that flight had been cancelled to avoid postponing the game. ''We made sure that would never be an option,'' he said.
''Chartered flights, helicopter, anything which would have got them potentially within range of Melbourne in time for tonight's match we would have looked at.''
He said the Toyota Cup game between the Roosters and the Storm scheduled for last night would likely be played as a midweek fixture.
