BOTH Richmond and Essendon have been physically preparing for Saturday's Dreamtime game in Darwin for at least a month.

With the temperature forecasted to be 32C and 64 per cent humidity at 6.30pm (with a "feels like" of 36C), it's a far cry from Melbourne's top of 21 degrees.

The AFL has brought in a heat policy for the game, bumping up the allowed number of water carriers from five to seven.

The quarter and three-quarter time breaks will be increased by two minutes each, while an additional four minutes has been added to half-time, which will now sit at 18 minutes.

There’s a “fridge room” directly behind each bench where players can cool off, while the Tigers were handing round Gatorade slushies at their training session in the heat of the day.

After a lightning storm severely impacted Essendon's captain's run, there'll also be a close watch on the radar, Richmond having already played in a lightning-affected game in Melbourne earlier this year.

Richmond ruck Poppy Kelly said the club was leaning heavily on the experience of high-performance manager Eliza Morrison, who has spent considerable time playing in the NTFL competition herself.

"Our S&C, Eliza, she's played up here and has done a lot of research, so we've been in the steam room a couple of times a week for the past month or so," Kelly said.

"We've also done a few heat bikes a week, and have been staying super hydrated.

"We have a heat chamber, so have been doing bike sessions in there."

Essendon midfielder Amelia Radford said that like Richmond, Essendon were trying to avoid talk about the heat while in Darwin.

"We've done a fair few things when we come off the training track while our heart rates are up," Radford said.

"We've been jumping in the sauna, and then doing a hot bike session as well, and obviously hydrating a heap.

"We had the hot game in Gold Coast (a few weeks ago), which has been good preparation for this. I think everyone's embraced the challenge, and we're not going to talk about the heat while we're up there.

"When it was pouring rain last Friday night (after a heavy storm front crossed the city), we all jumped off the training track and into the sauna in our wet clothes, it was quite funny."