Port Adelaide and Gold Coast will make AFL history on Sunday – but they don’t seem too thrilled about it.

The two sides will clash in Shanghai on Sunday afternoon (AEST) in the AFL’s first regular-season match outside Australia and New Zealand.

The build-up to the match has been marred, though, initially by an ugly dispute between the two sides over which jumper Gold Coast would wear, before Suns coach Rodney Eade complained about the poor air quality in China and the lengthy journey his players face just to get there.

Port Adelaide’s head of high performance Darren Burgess then added fuel to the fire on Tuesday when he acknowledged that the local food in Shanghai could be “pretty dangerous”.

Burgess, a fitness guru who formerly worked for English soccer giants Liverpool and also the Socceroos, said the Power players were on a strict food regime when in China.

“The food quality [at the hotel] is absolutely not an issue,” Burgess told Mix 102.3 FM.

“We just don’t let the guys eat outside of the hotel.

“When I was there with the Socceroos we stayed in Kunming and we lost two players on the morning of the game.

“[It was] a pretty important international [fixture]. [They missed] with food poisoning, and in the two weeks after that lost about six kilos.

“It can get pretty dangerous but we think we’ve got it all covered.”

Burgess, who also praised the quality of the club’s Shanghai hotel, said the Power had been planning for the game for “quite a while”.

They will travel to China on two separate flights with sponsor Cathay Pacific, so the players involved can sit in the airline’s ‘premium economy’ seats.

There are no such luxuries for the Gold Coast, though, with most of the Suns set to fly economy en route to Shanghai – a journey which could take up to 20 hours to complete.

‘Hopefully there’s no respiratory problems’

Gold Coast coach Rodney Eade said on Sunday that he was worried about the air quality in Shanghai and the logistical issues his side faced just to get there.

“That smog … hopefully there’s no respiratory problems,” Eade told Triple M Radio.

Gold Coast coach Rodney Eade isn’t that pleased about the Shanghai trip. Photo: Getty

“We won’t take any players who have got asthma or have got respiratory problems anyway. 

“You can’t get a direct flight there … it is going to be [tough] and not many players are in business [class], so exit rows, all those sorts of things.

“That’s probably more my concern – the preparation for the players.”

When asked if he was excited for the game, Eade added: “I have to [toe] the political line, don’t I? We’re looking forward to it.”

Former Sydney and Melbourne coach Paul Roos said Gold Coast’s travel plans were “ridiculous” while, also on Triple M, Wayne Carey claimed no player or coach from either side would want to go to China, if they were being honest.

‘He’s a coach, not a travel agent’

Gold Coast chairman Tony Cochrane tried to pour cold water on Eade’s claims on Tuesday, telling SEN Radio he “is a football coach, not a travel agent”.

He added: “Maybe in a media conference he sees [the negatives]. I can tell you, I’ve spoken to him a lot about it and he’s also very positive about [it].”

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan said there was no doubt whether the match would go ahead or not.

“This game, I’m very confident, will be going ahead,” he said.

“There’s nothing I’m aware of that actually puts the game at risk … our players and clubs are resilient if there is something, but I don’t have anything that’s worrying me at the moment.”