The front seat of the bus is empty.

It is 10pm WST as the bus stands idling on the tarmac at Perth Airport.

It’s cold. 6 degrees, and the combined body heat of the travelling party quickly fogs up the windows. Inside it seems like a nightclub with the flashing police lights bouncing off the streaky glass.

But this is no Venga bus. It’s pretty flat to be honest.

Charter flights, long bus trips, police escorts and hotel quarantine, none of these things are unusual anymore. We’ve played at the Gabba just twice in 10 weeks.

The empty front seat certainly is.

The usual occupant, senior coach Chris Fagan, has assumed a new position down the back of the bus and sits in quiet conversation with trusted lieutenants, Dayne Zorko, Harris Andrews and Ryan Lester.

* Daniel Rich has reminded Lions Media that the he is the OG of the back seat and Harris Andrews is a guest still serving probation. Lions media acknowledges the mistake and apologises unreservedly.*

In slowly making his way down the aisle Fages is sending a subtle message. We’re all in this together.

It is also the first sign that this week we’re going to be doing things a little bit differently.

There had been plenty of time on the long flight from Launceston to mull over the performance against the Hawks and once we hit the ground in Perth, a quick scan of various sports news sites told us the experts had just about written us off.  

But rather than focus on what had gone wrong, Fages was thinking about all the things this club does right.

He’d said publicly a few times the only issue he could see with the side was a drop off in energy, and he was going to spend the week helping the boys rediscover it.

With the two-hour time difference, it was a late night by the time we hit our rooms but there was movement in the camp surprisingly early on Monday.

We’d been cooped up in Launceston and everyone was keen to explore what was on offer. Word spread like wildfire when the basketball hoop was discovered and there was a steady stream of traffic headed in that direction after breakfast.

The Lions players love to modify games with their own quirky rules and it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to see a handful of shirtless players and Mitch Robbo driving to the hoop in only his undies.

Yep, strip basketball is a thing!

At the weekly meeting that afternoon the review of the Hawks game takes a back seat. Instead, the players are taken back to June, 24 and the 44 point demolition of premiership heavyweights Geelong at the Gabba.

Fages was reminding the side the Lions’ brand of footy stacks up.

“Our best is good enough boys,’’ he tells them.

“We’ve just got to rediscover our energy.’’

On Tuesday morning GM of Football Danny Daly gets up at breakfast and addresses the travelling party. We’ve got another two nights at the Joondalup Resort before the side transfers into hard lockdown in Perth City and he urges everybody to have some fun.

That night Froggy and Peter Blanch host another one of their famous trivia nights. As usual strength and conditioning coach Chris “Hammer” Brennan gets up and cracks a few gags. In our Manly hub last year Hammer had stretched every millimeter of his commanding 160cm frame and rattled off a series of self-effacing gags about short blokes.

This time he went after the big fellas with Harris and the Big O his primary targets.

Mitch Robbo doesn’t need to tell a joke to crack the place up and his constant interjections have everyone in stitches.

And he really brings the house down when he storms out, calling on Fages to join his protest at a Daniel Rich joke about Tasmanians.

Wednesday is a day off from the football program but there is plenty to keep everyone occupied. Over the course of that day Fages will have individual meetings with every player in the travelling party.

There’s no two ways about it, the coach can look pretty cranky when he’s marching around the joint deep in thought. But when het gets one-on-one time with his players his genuine care for them comes to the surface. The boys see it too and they love him for it.   

With plenty of free time the Berry Brothers, Tom Fullarton, Matho and Richie create some basketball trick shots that go viral. Elsewhere a treasure hunt is organised around the compound and Ben Hudson, Dirk Spits and Chris Brennan launch the Lions Olympics.

Over two days teams will compete in soccer, a modified game of footy, basketball and table tennis. By the time we depart on Thursday morning there’s some pretty sore fellas on the staff. Huddo and Andrew Crowell have swollen knees, Scotty Borlace has some random lat injury. Yours truly is basically stuffed from the neck down.

On Wednesday we’re told we’ll be heading to Melbourne after Sunday’s game. By the following day that looks unlikely as Victoria is plunged into another lockdown.   

We stop off to train at Optus Stadium and for some of the younger West Aussie boys, it’s their first chance to run around on the city’s shiny new centerpiece.

The session is sharp.

Fages would later say it was one of the best he’d seen at the club.

Once we check in at the Mercure in the city, we discover our new digs won’t afford us the opportunity for too much physical recreation, so we embark on a game of Chinese Whispers.

Jed Adcock sets us off and the intention is for the whisper to be passed alphabetically through the playing group until it reaches Zorko who will deliver a recital at dinner.

By B the game is on the brink of collapse as someone decides it’s easier to send the message by text.

An investigation is launched to find the guilty party but the boys close ranks.

One feature of our new living arrangements is a massive screen in the meal room and the Olympics have been hugely popular.

No one is more invested than the skipper who Hugh McCluggage describes as “the biggest sports nuffy in Brisbane, if not Australia”   

Saturday there’s an opportunity for staff to head to a back oval at Optus Stadium for a bit of exercise while the players do their captains run.

We’ve been in our rooms for a couple of days now, but the mood is upbeat. There’s singing in the mini-van on the way to the ground and Danny Daly joins in.

The song is The Killers’ Mr Brightside and for 3.43 seconds Danny ignores his phone and belts out a song he admits holds a special place in his heart as it was played at the wedding of close mate Jack Riewoldt.

Everyone in footy has been impacted by the Covid pandemic. People are paid less and asked to work more to keep the game afloat and for the most part they accept it with good grace. No one works harder than Danny as he tries to steer our footy department through a constantly changing landscape, and it’s nice to see him take a few minutes to belt out a tune.

That evening the players file into the Hotel ballroom for the main meeting of the week and once again Fages has planned a bit of a surprise.

He has bios prepared on every player and one-by one he goes around the room reminding them of their achievements.

It’s stirring stuff.

Players had been asked to provide photos of the people they were dedicating their season to, and a carousel of loved ones back home are displayed on the screen. It’s a nice touch when pics of all the staff on this trip are also included with the reminder that everybody here had given up time at home in the pursuit of success.

Somehow the Chinese Whispers had been revived and, a couple of days later than scheduled, Zorko rises at dinner and rattles off a slightly ribald line. Rates himself in the comedy stakes, Dayne does and he doesn’t mind laughing at his own jokes. You could just tell he was up for a big one on Sunday.

Game day morning we’re asked to pack our bags and load them on the truck. We’re checking out but our destination is unknown.

The hotel is a bit premature de-coding our room keys. The lifts stop working and there’s people locked out of rooms. It’s chaos. And no one cares.

Then, just before we leave for the ground, we’re told we’ll be coming back and staying until Tuesday. These types of last-minute changes can disrupt a side, but the mojo is really flowing now.

As we file onto the bus there’s a collective feeling its going to be a good day.

Six hours later, with four points secured, it is the Venga bus. Charlie Cameron is DJ and he’s taking requests.

JL wants “We didn’t start the fire” by Billy Joel!

And gets his wish!

What was he thinking?

That song must be one of the hardest to learn in the history of rock n roll but there’s a bus full of people singing like there’s no one listening.

And back in his customary position up the front, the coach is one of them.