ACTING general manager of football operations Josh Mahoney says Melbourne’s early arrival in Darwin will give it a “competitive advantage” for Saturday night’s clash against the Brisbane Lions at TIO Stadium.

The Demons left for the Top End on Tuesday afternoon so they could acclimatise to the hot conditions and conduct community activities, according to Mahoney.

“The thoughts of coming up earlier were generated through our experiences with our pre-season camp [last December]. That’s part of the reason why we came up earlier on Tuesday. That allows us to have our main training session on Wednesday night,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

“In our first couple of training sessions last December, we felt that our guys had to adapt to the training conditions. By the third or fourth day, we were back to producing the level of effort that we expected from them, based in Melbourne.

“The important thing is that we’ll get our main training session at the same time we’ll be playing, so we’ll get to experience the conditions that we’ll be experiencing four days later.”

Melbourne is set to play its fourth home and away match in Darwin, having first played in the Territory in 2010. The Demons have played Port Adelaide on their previous three occasions, with 2010/11 providing victories, before last year’s loss.

Previously, the Dees have arrived on a Thursday in preparation for the Saturday night contest.

The extra couple of days mean Melbourne can further strengthen its ties with the Northern Territory Government and other parties.

“Due to the relationships we’ve built with the personnel at Robertsons Barracks and AFLNT during our pre-season camp, we’ve been able to basically move our training week up to Darwin, without losing any of the facilities we have [at AAMI Park],” Mahoney said.

“We have gym facilities and swimming pool recovery at Robertson Barracks and we have TIO Stadium for our next two training sessions.

“We have a few other appearances and with our main training on Wednesday, we’ll be holding an open training session and having a barbeque. Those appearances fit in around our training schedule.”

Mahoney said it was great to have popular past player Austin Wonaeamirri also involved in Melbourne’s activities this week. 

“On Monday and Tuesday, representatives from the club, including Mark Jamar and Rohan Bail did some clinics in Alice Springs and areas surrounding there,” he said.

“We were also fortunate to have Austin Wonaeamirri come down as well and he was involved in those clinics. It was great to see Aussie involved and back around the guys.

“Both Rohan and Mark have now joined us for the rest of the week and they will continue their rehab up here for the rest of the week.”