THE GIANTS are the AFL's 'Tarmac Titans'.

Thursday night's clash against the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium will be one of 14 times that Adam Kingsley's side will be required to jump on a plane for a game this season. While the big Victorian clubs play the majority of their games in their home city (Collingwood and Carlton have 17 home-and-away games in Melbourne this year), the GIANTS have just eight at their home ground, ENGIE Stadium.

From the MCG to Optus Stadium, Norwood to Tasmania, Adelaide to Geelong, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Canberra and back again, the GIANTS have been there, seen that.

So, how do you keep it fresh? How do you ensure players aren't mentally and physically fatigued? And, as a coach, how do you prepare for an important game when so much of your week is spent checking in, boarding, taking off and landing again?

Ahead of the GIANTS' clash against Essendon a fortnight ago, AFL.com.au spent the morning with GIANTS coach Kingsley to get a sense of his rhythm and routine.

As the club gets set for another week racking up the frequent flyer points ahead of their clash with the Dogs, a simple question was posed: how do the League's busiest and best road warriors prepare for yet another short and sharp stint away from home?

CAPTAIN'S RUN

The GIANTS are different. They have to be.

Most clubs, on interstate trips, will fly the day before the game. They'll land, have a captain's run on the ground where they're due to play – or somewhere else in the vicinity – then get on with their business. But, given they're on the road so much, the GIANTS have decided to take a unique approach to their pre-match preparations.

Instead, the GIANTS meet at their own headquarters on the morning before game day. They'll do their captain's run at home, go straight to the airport together, then fly. Instead of training in the state where they're due to play, they'll then have the freedom to relax. All of their work has already been done back in Sydney.

Part of that is due to necessity. The GIANTS have, in the past, often felt the frustration of being knocked back from doing their captain's run on grounds like the MCG or Marvel Stadium. That's changed recently – with the GIANTS offered Marvel Stadium for a captain's run ahead of a victory over Carlton back in May, only to turn the opportunity down so they wouldn't disrupt their new routine – but it has been a factor in the past.

That routine was devised having often been forced to travel out to venues like Wesley College for their pre-game run throughs whenever they were in Melbourne. It's also led to some challenges. Even a fortnight ago, the club was forced to walk defender Jack Buckley over to Gosch's Paddock under the cover of darkness to complete a fitness test the night before their game against Essendon.

"I left the captain's run with the players," Kingsley told AFL.com.au. "Ultimately, they're the ones that need to perform, so you hand that over to them if they're passionate about it.

"It was a consensus. It wasn't just Toby Greene making the decision to do it in Sydney, or Josh Kelly making the decision, or Stephen Coniglio or anyone like that. They discussed it and came up with what they thought was best for performance, not just what was easiest or what they liked doing.

"They made a couple of decisions. They made the decision that if we played interstate, with the exception of Perth, that we'd do our captain's run in Sydney. The little asterisk to that is that if it's a night game, away from home, then they'll shuffle a few things around to make that work."

TRAVEL DAY

If you were walking through Fitzroy Gardens on a Wednesday afternoon a fortnight ago, you might have been treated to a little surprise. There, in lieu of a captain's run, some of the game's biggest stars were having a kick of the footy and a few friendly games.

Not only were the GIANTS on the road again, but this time they faced another hurdle: the prospect of a five-day turnaround ahead of that Thursday night clash against Essendon. So, as they do so often, they improvised. They scrapped the captain's run back in Sydney, flew out earlier, and gave the players an extra afternoon to relax.

But a few, led by Greene, were getting antsy. Having touched down in Melbourne, they wanted the chance to stretch the legs. So, the GIANTS skipper – with the permission of his coach – grabbed some teammates and walked across the road from the Pullman on the Park Hotel, where they were staying, for their own homespun version of a captain's run in Fitzroy Gardens.

"Toby was pretty keen and they walked across to the park when we got here," Kingsley said. "Because we didn't do a captain's run, he wanted to take all the players over there and just do a couple of little, small-sided games just to sharpen up.

"I didn't go with them, but you can hear them. I'm up on level 15 (of the hotel) and I can hear them carrying on. That'll be their plan for the day. But, normally, we do all of that in Sydney. We travel down, then we're just done."

For home games, Kingsley will spend the night before a match creating his meetings. He'll re-watch training, formulate the most important topics, put together slides for his PowerPoint presentations, and write down some key notes on what to address with his playing group.

But, having an abundance of forced free time while sat on a plane has allowed Kingsley to use those few hours productively. Instead, when the GIANTS are on the road, he'll do those tasks in mid-air.

"I'll usually do it that night, after training. I'll watch training, grab the bits that I want out of it, then put it into the meeting and animate it," Kingsley said.

"But, usually, I'll be putting a meeting together on the plane. The preview meeting with the team, then the pre-game meeting. I'll have clips that I'll need to animate to have in the meeting, or I'll watch training again during that time."

THE MORNING

The GIANTS have a 'Run Club' that meets on every away trip and it's normally packed. There are regulars, but other employees from a range of different parts of the club also dip in to take part. Together, they jog around various parts of whichever city they've just travelled to, grab a coffee somewhere, and go again. It's a fun way to pass the time.

Kingsley's not in that, though. He's in the 'Walk Club'.

Every game day, Kingsley heads off with midfield assistant Ben Hart, physiotherapist Andrew Ryan, media and communications boss Laura Elliott and travel operations coordinator Rebecca McGowan. Their stroll is far less taxing, and far more leisurely.

On this particular Thursday, their journey involved a walk to the nearest café for a morning coffee, then to the MCG, three laps around the famous, old ground, and back to the hotel. "Laura is intent on letting everyone know she paid for the coffees," Kingsley joked after the stroll. "It was the first time ever."

The 'Walk Club' is the first part of the coach's matchday routine. It starts a busy morning.

"Because it's a night game, the players will have line meetings," Kingsley said. "Then we'll have a coaches' meeting. We'll run through scenarios, what-ifs, that type of thing. Then we'll do walk throughs. Then we'll do my team meeting. Then we're done.

"I'll go to the gym, or maybe another walk. If there's a game on TV, if it's a weekend, I'll probably watch that. It's pretty cruisy up until maybe three hours out. That's when you start to flip the notebook open and start preparing. You get into game mode."

For a night game, as the Thursday clash against Essendon was – and as this Thursday's encounter with the Western Bulldogs will be – the morning of a game is spent preparing. There will be three chunks of game play reminders, with a walk sandwiched in between to break up the day, before they're left to their own devices in the afternoon.

"They'll be wrapped up by 11.30am," Kingsley said of the players.

"In total, they'll have nearly two hours of work this morning. It'll be a line meeting, a walk, walk throughs, then a team meeting. They're half-hour chunks, roughly. But they're in a routine and they break up the meetings by going for a walk."

So, what does a player do on game day? For the most part, Kingsley lets them decide. On this particular Thursday, a few venture across to 'Salt' – the movement, recovery and wellness hub attached to the hotel – while some leave to visit friends and family, and others stay situated in their rooms for the majority of the afternoon.

"They all do it differently," Kingsley said.

"Some will then go for a sleep in the afternoon, which is what I used to do as a player. You turn the footy on, lay in bed, fall asleep. Some might catch up with family. Some will play games, or stuff like that. Others will do their uni work. It's just stuff to relax, but more importantly to take their mind off the game for the most part."

LOCKING IN

Does an AFL coach get nervous for games?

"Yes," is Kingsley's terse response.

And what time does that normally kick in?

"It depends on who we're playing."

For someone 65 games into his coaching career – and having played 170 games of his own, including 14 finals, a Grand Final and featuring in a premiership – it's an amusing, and slightly endearing, prospect to think about. But, for Kingsley, it's a fact of life.

"I find the games where you should win are more nerve-racking in the lead-up," he said. "I always worry about complacency or thinking it's going to be an easy game. Against teams that you really should beat, based on ladder position and form and so on, I always find those are the ones where I'm more nervous."

Kingsley's nerves ramp up as he completes his final preparations. For that Thursday night match against Essendon, the bus to Marvel Stadium picked the players and coaching staff up from the hotel at 5pm. At exactly 6.12pm, he had his final meeting with the team inside the visiting changerooms, deep inside the bowels of Marvel Stadium.

"But that's really basic," he said of the meeting. "It's reminders, keep it simple. I don't need to be writing a heap of stuff on the board or watching tape or vision. It'll be really basic. Just making sure their attention is dragged back to what's important. I'll try and have a laugh with them, usually at my expense."

The players are similar, in terms of when they lock in. While, on this particular Thursday, they're given the majority of the afternoon off after the final morning preparations are finished at around 11.30am, they're still expected to flick into 'game mode' long before the bus arrives to pick them up.

"As the game gets closer, they'll flip their books open and go through the focus points," Kingsley said. "What are the things that I need to do to make sure I get the job done? What are the structures that Essendon are going to run from stoppage? What are our structures? If I'm playing this or that role, where do I need to be? They'll start to mentally prepare for the game. Or they should be, anyway."

AFTERWARDS

It was a gusty GIANTS win.

Having gone to Brisbane midway through June – and knocked off the reigning premier on their own turf – a celebration was in order. However, rather than fly back to Sydney to get that particular party started, the Giants opted to enjoy the fruits of their labour in Ipswich.

While the majority of the team could have caught the first flight back home to Sydney, they stayed in Brisbane and journeyed out to Brighton Homes Arena – in the Queensland suburb of Ipswich – to watch the VFL side play the following day. It was how they chose to spend their allotted patch of free time, given to them by the club, following an interstate game.

"That certainly wasn't a directive from me," Kingsley said. "That's what they organised. They would've gone out the night before, had a few beers, had a meal and all of that sort of stuff. They typically do things together. They're not from Brisbane, they were just there to support the VFL boys and have a bit of fun.

"The night after the Western Bulldogs game (this Thursday night), we play at the Whitten Oval on the Friday afternoon in the reserves. All of our boys will be there. There is a team flight after that game, for those who want to go back."

There is only one rule for the GIANTS players after matches. They simply must report back to the club before dinner, the night before their first session back. This week, their first session will be a review meeting next Monday. That means, they must return back to Sydney by dinner time on Sunday night. The 72 hours before then, they can spend how they want.

"We do (give them the opportunity to stay). And yes, they take it," Kingsley said.

"There are always exceptions. But, for the most part, they know that. We'll have guys stay tomorrow and Saturday and come back Saturday or Sunday afternoon. They'll have time with family, catch up with mates, and spend time together here. Some of them may even go to a game, if there's one down here on a Friday night. Usually, they'll do something like that. That doesn't matter whether it's in Perth, or Brisbane, or wherever.

"We've got a 10-day break into North Melbourne the following week, so if they want to stay for three days down here and then come back then, they've just got to come back before dinner the night before the next meeting.

"I don't need them getting back on the team flight with me and the rest of the guys to make sure that they prepare well or recover well or whatever it is. I give them that freedom and trust. They've earned it, and they've deserved it."

You can see why they have earned that trust. This year, the GIANTS have silenced vocal home crowds at the MCG, GMHBA Stadium, the Gabba, Optus Stadium and – on multiple occasions – at Marvel Stadium. With such a solid, refined routine, they'll hope a similar story plays out again against the Western Bulldogs on Thursday night.