Well the last bit may have been a stretch, but in a 9 round home and away at the end of round 5 we will have played 4 in WA. At the very least we’ll have to play back to back games away to even it up, plus it plays into the vic centric media narrative that freo are unproven on the road and can’t be considered “serious contenders” until we are tested outside WA, they ran with that all of last season, despite our wins away from WA.
Edit: this is a ridiculous narrative when you check the history and discover that the other 3 remaining teams at the end of last year, North Melbourne, Melbourne and Carlton didn’t leave vic once during the 6 round season.