Suppose you have worked all day, then caught a midnight flight to London via Hong Kong but were told to stay awake for the first eight hours in order to adjust to the northern hemisphere sleep cycle.

Welcome to the Storm rugby league team, travelling to Leeds for next week's World Club Challenge. The journey from Melbourne showed why the Storm are a strong chance of being the first club in 10 years to repeat as premiers.

So entrenched is their discipline, work ethic and overall professionalism, it's already too late for any team hoping to catch them this year.

The contrast between their behaviour and past Kangaroo teams - most of whom would have been speaking Swahili by the time the plane passed the equator - reflects the change in the game since players became full time in the early 1990s.

Alcohol was banned on the flight for players and staff, all of whom travelled business class.

(This passenger managed one plastic cup of champagne before being swamped by guilt and giant Methodist educated Polynesians thrusting huge bottles of water in his direction).

The players, despite having completed a vigorous weights session followed by an energetic ballwork session on the day of travel, stayed awake on the flight to Hong Kong, standing in the galley playing cards.

Those who snuck away to their seats for sneaky slumber were jerked awake by prop Brett White and halfback Cooper Cronk.

The determination to avoid jetlag, ahead of a trial game against Halifax on Friday and the big match against Leeds next week, symbolises the lag between the Storm and their NRL rivals.

Whereas steak is a reasonable menu choice en route to England and its expensive meat and mad cow disease, seared sea bass was the popular choice of the players.

So calorie conscious are these 110kg monsters, they even peel the skin off the fish.

Although they have great faith in the jars of nutritional supplements provided by trainers, it doesn't stop them studying the labels listing the contents.

Just when you snap from a reverie of Dallas Donnelly ordering a foil tray of mashed potato, heaped Vesuvius high, at the Railway Hotel, Lidcombe, a Polynesian prop wanders by in tights.

Yes, in order to avoid deep vein thrombosis, all Storm players were told to wear full-length stockings.

During transit at Hong Kong airport, they filed into the Qantas business class lounge and occupied positions on the floor where a strength and conditioning coach took them through a stretching program which would challenge the elasticised limbs of a circus acrobat.

Meanwhile, assistant coaches opened their laptops and formed little huddles, examining vision of the trial match against Manly, played three days before departure for England.

The stretching over, centre Israel Folau drew his new midfield partner, Will Chambers, to his side and they peered over the coaches' shoulders at the vision.

One incident drew their attention and they retired to a corner of the lounge where they drew patterns of play on the glass desk with their fingers, the 19-year-old Folau already assuming the role of teacher formerly occupied by the departed Matt King.

Back on the plane, players opened their own laptops and clicked on icons of family, past games and music.

When you see a menacing Polynesian - with braided hair hanging like black icicles from his head - open a laptop with a screen saver of a staffordshire terrier pup playing in the front yard of his Melbourne home, you know rugby league is doing more than just teaching these sons of the South Seas to run at halfbacks.

There were no midair wrestling matches that marred international flights of footballers 30 years ago. No incidents with the flight crew. The players even folded blankets and handed them to attendants.

Nor were there any complaints when their bags did not accompany them on the British Airways flight to Manchester, a seeming inevitability today with connecting flights. The news they would be forced to wear their thin tracksuits for a further 24 hours, despite some seeing snow for the first time, was accepted amiably.

After a peak hour bus trip to Leeds, the players again stretched and were given 30 minutes to report for dinner.

Anyone seeking the key to all this discipline and dedication would have seen the answer when coach Craig Bellamy entered the meal room, soaked in sweat.

Drained from the long flight, desperate for sleep, aware his only clothes were the ones he wore, Bellamy had scouted the hotel gym and already been for a punishing run on the treadmill.