Carlton players, coaches and staff will fly to New Zealand on Thursday, ahead of Saturday’s ANZAC Day clash with St Kilda in Wellington.
It’s new territory for the Blues who have never played across the Tasman, unlike the Saints who are travelling to New Zealand for the third time.
Carlton coach Mick Malthouse says it’s all about overcoming the “little things” to make the journey as smooth as possible.
Getting to know the conditions at Westpac Stadium is also very important.
“We haven’t been on the ground, which is another issue, we want to get out and look at the ground on Friday,” Malthouse said.
“We want to get as many players to train on Friday as we can.”
Come Saturday, Malthouse said there would be an awareness about playing on ANZAC Day and that Carlton would respect the significance of the day.
This weekend Malthouse will equal Jock McHale’s coaching record of 714 games, but at this stage the “enormity” of what happened a hundred years ago at Gallipoli is much more important to the senior coach, who plans to attend a dawn service in Wellington.
“It’s going to be very early, but for the respect that is due for our ANZACS and particularly being on New Zealand soil I don’t care what time it starts, I just want to be there,” he said.
