Football technology manager Pete Roberts looks at what's around the corner in his area of the game in this week's Stats Incredible
THE BYE THIS weekend gives us an opportunity to shift our attention to a few different areas around the club.
The players have been able to head away with each other on various camps, and also get amongst the community with assorted clinics and appearances.
For football technology, this time of year is also time to start thinking about next season. While there are still eight games remaining in 2011, we have one eye on how we can change things for next year. And importantly, how much it will cost.
Technology in football has come a long way. Only eight or nine years ago we were still using VHS video tapes to record games of footy. But where will things be in another eight or nine years?
In order to look so far forward, it’s important to clear up a few misconceptions about the role of technology in the football department.
Gone are the days of staff being employed to simply “do the stats” - we don’t have to sit at the back of the coaches’ box and record kicks, marks and handballs. Thankfully, we now have dedicated statistics providers (Champion Data and Prowess Sports) who do the work for us, and deliver it in an instant.
We also don’t tend to spend our time “cutting” DVDs of our games, or of particular players. These days, all the files we use are digital, which gives us the flexibility to edit, manipulate and export whatever we like. In fact, DVD is perhaps the worst format to work with because it’s so inflexible.
These days, we have access to different camera angles of our matches, GPS data on all our players, and more stats and measurements than you can imagine.
So - where to from here?
The biggest advancement in the short term might be a move towards high-definition video. Clubs are already using HD footage of training and matches, and this will only increase in the next couple of years as things develop.
When the broadcasters move towards broadcasting all AFL games in HD we will see some great results at club level.
One area which has already moved towards high-definition is the behind goal footage. Using a remote controlled camera perched high up in the stands at each of the AFL venues, the benefits of HD are obvious. Even though the camera is so far away, we can still identify players, analyse team structures and (sometimes unfortunately) capture any off-the-ball incidents with a great deal of clarity.
In the future, we will hopefully see these cameras at both ends of the ground. At club level, you can never have too much vision at your fingertips.
Another major area of advancement is the use of GPS technology. Currently, all players are able to be tracked via GPS while out on the ground, and we can access some great data on our players - speeds, degrees of impact, workrate measurements, heart rates, etc.
In coming years, we will possibly see a GPS unit in the ball itself, so we can track the ball movement along with the movement of our players. The media outlets would love this technology for their broadcasts.
Also, the GPS units currently don’t work too well indoors at Etihad Stadium.
But it’s only a matter of time before a solution is figured out.
The integration between GPS, match vision and statistics will take things to a whole new level over the next few years. Unfortunately for players, there is nowhere to hide!
As the major technology companies come up with new ideas, the AFL clubs in turn come up with unique applications for football. Now that tablet PCs and iPads have been developed, clubs are finding new ways to exploit their advantages - video on an iPad out on the ground during the breaks, touch screens in the gym for players to enter their data - the list goes on.
Funnily enough, AFL football is seen as a world leader in the use of technology, despite it being a very localised game. American Football definitely uses some great “toys” at the elite and college level, but considering the budgets available to the massive soccer clubs, basketball teams and football codes, it is somewhat surprising that AFL is leading the way.
Across the competition, we tend to do things smarter and more efficient than most other codes. This is why the concept of the football department “arms race” is almost irrelevant in terms of technology - it just comes down to how we apply the technology at our club.
THE BYE THIS weekend gives us an opportunity to shift our attention to a few different areas around the club.
The players have been able to head away with each other on various camps, and also get amongst the community with assorted clinics and appearances.
For football technology, this time of year is also time to start thinking about next season. While there are still eight games remaining in 2011, we have one eye on how we can change things for next year. And importantly, how much it will cost.
Technology in football has come a long way. Only eight or nine years ago we were still using VHS video tapes to record games of footy. But where will things be in another eight or nine years?
In order to look so far forward, it’s important to clear up a few misconceptions about the role of technology in the football department.
Gone are the days of staff being employed to simply “do the stats” - we don’t have to sit at the back of the coaches’ box and record kicks, marks and handballs. Thankfully, we now have dedicated statistics providers (Champion Data and Prowess Sports) who do the work for us, and deliver it in an instant.
We also don’t tend to spend our time “cutting” DVDs of our games, or of particular players. These days, all the files we use are digital, which gives us the flexibility to edit, manipulate and export whatever we like. In fact, DVD is perhaps the worst format to work with because it’s so inflexible.
These days, we have access to different camera angles of our matches, GPS data on all our players, and more stats and measurements than you can imagine.
So - where to from here?
The biggest advancement in the short term might be a move towards high-definition video. Clubs are already using HD footage of training and matches, and this will only increase in the next couple of years as things develop.
When the broadcasters move towards broadcasting all AFL games in HD we will see some great results at club level.
One area which has already moved towards high-definition is the behind goal footage. Using a remote controlled camera perched high up in the stands at each of the AFL venues, the benefits of HD are obvious. Even though the camera is so far away, we can still identify players, analyse team structures and (sometimes unfortunately) capture any off-the-ball incidents with a great deal of clarity.
In the future, we will hopefully see these cameras at both ends of the ground. At club level, you can never have too much vision at your fingertips.
Another major area of advancement is the use of GPS technology. Currently, all players are able to be tracked via GPS while out on the ground, and we can access some great data on our players - speeds, degrees of impact, workrate measurements, heart rates, etc.
In coming years, we will possibly see a GPS unit in the ball itself, so we can track the ball movement along with the movement of our players. The media outlets would love this technology for their broadcasts.
Also, the GPS units currently don’t work too well indoors at Etihad Stadium.
But it’s only a matter of time before a solution is figured out.
The integration between GPS, match vision and statistics will take things to a whole new level over the next few years. Unfortunately for players, there is nowhere to hide!
As the major technology companies come up with new ideas, the AFL clubs in turn come up with unique applications for football. Now that tablet PCs and iPads have been developed, clubs are finding new ways to exploit their advantages - video on an iPad out on the ground during the breaks, touch screens in the gym for players to enter their data - the list goes on.
Funnily enough, AFL football is seen as a world leader in the use of technology, despite it being a very localised game. American Football definitely uses some great “toys” at the elite and college level, but considering the budgets available to the massive soccer clubs, basketball teams and football codes, it is somewhat surprising that AFL is leading the way.
Across the competition, we tend to do things smarter and more efficient than most other codes. This is why the concept of the football department “arms race” is almost irrelevant in terms of technology - it just comes down to how we apply the technology at our club.
