It's the strategy used to great effect in recent years by the likes of Craig Bellamy and Trent Robinson and now Dragons coach Anthony Griffin is hoping a week on the road will deliver lasting benefits to his team.
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The side will travel to Melbourne on Saturday for Sunday's clash with the Storm before remaining in Victoria for a training camp.
St George Illawarra will then fly directly to Brisbane next Thursday, where they'll put the finishing touches on their preparations for next Saturday's Magic Round date with the Titans.
The Dragons enter Sunday's match with Melbourne full of confidence, having won their past three matches.
The Storm, however, have proved a class above their rivals in recent weeks, scoring 70 against the Warriors and 50 against Newcastle in the past fortnight.
Griffin recognises his side must continue to improve if they are to topple the best teams in the competition.
With back-to-back road trips on the cards, that made the next week the ideal time for a training camp.
"We'll come away with four points hopefully," Griffin said. "That's the whole idea, to give us every chance to win both games.
"We take a couple of flights out of the week and go straight to Brisbane. It's a short turnaround, a six-day turnaround and Sunday's the first challenge there."
The culture at the Storm is often considered among the best in the competition, Bellamy using the team's low-key status in AFL-mad Melbourne to his advantage.
That has seen the club become the NRL's standard bearers, St George Illawarra one of many teams eager to replicate their success.
The Dragons are uniquely placed in the league, the team based in two cities and players spread across the Illawarra and Sydney.
So while they spend plenty of time together at their WIN Stadium base, they often go separate ways at the end of each day.
For veteran prop Aaron Woods, that makes the coming week crucial to help form bonds and strengthen the players' connections, on and off the field.
"It's really good just to be around each other's company," Woods said. "Being around the boys the whole time, playing cards, having jokes, you do build that good camaraderie.
"It's like when you've been on tours, you don't know anyone but then when you come back from the tours and you're best mates.
"It's something we're really looking forward to. We play the game against Melbourne, then we've got a week down there before we go to Magic Round. To be around each other, tell stories we probably wouldn't know about the players, all the boys are really looking forward to it."
A NSW and Australian representative, Woods has enjoyed multiple representative tours during his career.
They're trips players often cite as the highlight of their careers, lasting connections between players formed.
While the next two weeks pose a number of challenges, with the Storm looming as a major test of the Dragons' finals credentials, Woods is confident the benefits from a week on the road will translate to performances on the field.
"You become closer, there are little things you work on, you're around each other a lot more," Woods said.
"It is a little bit of every-thing - the trust we were speaking about, just the little one-percenters."
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Cameron Mee
Sports reporter at the Canberra Times
Sports reporter at the Canberra Times
