Fury on the road for over a week

The North Queensland Fury last night flew into Wellington, arriving at midnight local time after a long day of travel. The 16-man squad is missing several players, and, with the Phoenix in good recent form, will likely struggle to get more than a draw. In what is an epic road-trip, the Fury will then head straight to Sydney, where they will base themselves for their next two games against Sydney FC and Central Coast Mariners.

Among the names missing for North Queensland are Eugene Sseppuya (visa), Chris Payne and Isaka Cernak, who are on national team duties, along with injured Dyron Daal, Adam Casey and Andrew Kilian. All bar Casey will likely be available for the Sydney FC match.

Following the trip to New Zealand, the Fury will train in North Parramatta, and also base themselves locally up until their clash with the CCM. It is an unusual occurrence, yet a logical response to a season draw that has Fury playing 3 away games in a row. The issue of mid-week fixtures has not been tackled effectively to date, and a possible solution lies in what is another problematic necessity that has arisen this year. The bye.

Give the traveling team their bye straight after their midweek fixture. With a little imagination the effect of both the mid-week game and the bye could be canceled out by each-other. With Sydney Rovers now looking unlikely to enter the competition next year, perhaps next season's fixtures will learn from this year's errors.

2011/12 Season Draw speculation aside, the Fury will do it tough in the coming week, becoming the pseudo western Sydney team - without the 'history and tradition'.