Apart from the long flight and a bit of jet lag the positives are huge and have already been mentioned.

Great forward thinking by the club, welcome to the 21st century

Anyone that can't see the benefit in the trip..........words fail me

It is, just thought he'd be a great excuse for losing to Hull.

No doubt he'd've mentioned his farm, ducks and beautiful Scandinavian wife......oh, and Matthew Banister cost him his job at Radio One

The Hairy Cornflake

Ohhhhh, The seventies equivalent of Peeed Pinnington...embarrassing

Pipesmoker of the Year as well

I really don't buy into this 'we peaked too soon'. Leeds, Saints, the Bulls & Wigan have all won the G/F by being the best all season and carrying that into the play off's.

Last season we were the best team throughout and we started off the play offs with a fantastic 47-0 win.
We lost to a prefect storm of things that went against us on the night and not in any way because we had such a great season.

Its just like the NRL champions usually have to do, fly the other side of the world to play a meaningless fixture for the benefit of their hosts then fly all the way back the week before the season starts to start the proper games.

Anyway next week if we lose at least we might find out what the players got up to on tour, remember in the DVDV days there were always good stories coming out of pre season, remember when Andrew Gee had to stage a getaway from a French gang and shouldercharged a door down to escape etc, another time the players supposedly had a fight in Lanzarote.

Perhaps we should leave the final word on whether the Trip to Australia is / will be of use for the lads over the coming months to Lee Briers whom I quote from his blog

'This camp has been an amazing success with the amount of quality work we have been able to get through and has been a once in a life time experience............. I am sure all this work will put us in good stead for the upcoming season'

I agree, but not sure why you're doing the whole 'At last... a voice of reason' thing: apart from the OP pretty much everyone has said it was a good trip with an eye on the bigger picture rather than prepping for one game next week.

Wow. I know people have a pretty low view of the quality of Super League on here, but really? I can only assume that you meant the squad as a whole, in which case, you are probably right.

IMO, a very worthwhile trip that can only benefit team morale in the long run. And who cares if we're jetlagged? As Leeds proved last season, you only need to be in form during September/October!

The lads are tweeting that they got back at lunchtime today. Two days rest and time with their families and they will be right by Wednesday

I've never really seen the logic of warm weather training to prepare you for games in cold wet conditions. Surely better off going not so far and having conditions more like home.

To take so many members of the club, in particular the younger players, into an environment where sport is so excellently encouraged and participated in will offer many rewards - perhaps not immediately, but certainly over the season and beyond. How anybody can see this trip as a waste of time is astounding.

As for jetlag etc ... do me a favour! If we lose on sunday it'll be because we didn't perform, not because sleeping on a Boeing 747 is tricky to achieve. Aussie National teams come here after a gruelling NRL season to compete in International arrangements and do pretty well considering they are faced with the same difficulties.

So I'm not sure exactly where the problem is?

Isnt it the SuperJumbo Airbus A380 they are flying on?

Didnt they travel out on one?

It wont make any difference to the season as a whole. It may give them an extra boost in the first couple of games but by then they would have been up to pace even with an English pre season.
What it has done is vastly raised the profile and standing of the club and told everyone else where we are looking to go.

It's not that hard to understand. Pre-season is about fitness, conditioning (physical and mental) and skills (individual and team) work to prepare for the season ahead. Thus, surely it makes sense to be able to do all of that in the best conditions (and environment) as possible. This will maximise: time spent / quality of the work / motivation to perform.

I can't see the logic of putting up with second rate conditions if first rate ones are available?