The Western Bulldogs have been forced to endure an epic journey to Darwin for Saturday night's clash against Port Adelaide at Marrara.
The Dogs' journey on Thursday turned into a seven hour plus epic after the QANTAS plane they were originally booked on for the direct flight to Darwin did not have enough room for all their baggage.
As a result the plane was forced to land in Alice Springs and unload some bags - resulting in a delay of over an hour - before the Bulldogs finally arrived in Darwin late this afternoon instead of just after lunchtime as originally planned.
However Bulldogs' coach Rodney Eade said the travel setback would not affect the second-placed Dogs' preparations for Saturday night's game against the struggling Power with the team still planning to train at Marrara as scheduled on Friday.
"Apparently the plane we caught didn't have enough room for our baggage so we had to offload 20 or 30 bags," Eade said.
Earlier Eade told Channel Ten that he was not concerned by the latest injury setback suffered by record seven time best and fairest winner Scott West.
West, who has been out since round six with bone bruising to the knee and has played just four games all season, was supposed to return after the mid-season break but will miss several more weeks after pulling up sore while running earlier this week.
The injury again casts doubt on whether the 33-year-old's body can recover in time for the finals but Eade is confident his veteran midfielder will be ready come September.
"It's not a disaster, just a bit of a setback," Eade said of West's latest injury blow.
Eade said he is hoping West will return to the VFL by August and get some games under his belt with Williamstown before returning to the Dogs' line-up in time for the finals.
"I think he will be a great recruit for us when he is able to come back," Eade said.
"He has still kept himself pretty fit so it's just a matter of getting the match conditioning into him so by Round 18 or 19 he will be able to play at Williamstown and then we can take it from there."
Meanwhile despite reportedly being the favourite to land former West Coast Eagles' captain Ben Cousins next season - if Cousins' imminent comeback at state league level proves successful over the rest of this year - the Dogs have declared themselves out of the running.
"No interest," Eade said when asked whether the Dogs would be interested in recruiting the confessed drug addict and 2005 Brownlow Medalist.
The Dogs had been listed as favourites to land Cousins by bookmakers this week given his manager Ricky Nixon is also the manager of Eade and is close to Dogs' recruiting manager Scott Clayton while one of Cousins' best mates is the Bulldogs' boxing coach Tim Smith.