In an exclusive interview with Ministry of Sport as part of the ‘Brand Break’ video interview series, Catapult ceo, Will Lopes, broke down the latest surrounding a three-year partnership with the Australian Football League (AFL).

Champion Data has extended its relationship with Catapult, expanding its reach to the AFL with a supply performance analysis solutions the primary focus.

Since 2015, Catapult has supplied Champion Data with the technology, in order to deliver real-time and never before seen stats to teams and importantly the fans.

The instalment of the ‘Clear Sky’ system in stadiums across Australia will give coaches real-time data on player performance, whilst enabling the advancement of the Telstra Tracker during live-broadcasts.

Catapult ceo, Will Lopes, spoke exclusively to the Ministry of Sport, explaining the deal and how the clubs and players will benefit from the data on and off the field.

“The deal with the AFL for us… it’s one of the largest deals we have across the globe, particularly around the performance technology that’s being utilised, so we now actually are supporting all 18 of the AFL teams, as well as supporting the AFLW pathways and the umpires,” he said.

“So in order for us to do that, what we did is actually extend and have a permanently installed solution of our Clear Sky systems,”

“The data is utilised in stadium in a couple of different ways, first the teams themselves are using the data to track and monitor the physical load of players they’re doing that during training, monitoring speed distance and effort,”

“During match day, we monitor speed and physical load so that it influences the decision making such as rotations for example in the AFL,”

“But in this scenario as well, one of the major things that is being utilised is to use player tracking data for broadcast purpose and what that is trying to do is to help engage fans and really help them understand the physical load that’s required needed to play an AFL match, particularly at the highest level,”

“So understanding for example, how demanding the sport is on an athlete, whether it’s how long they are there travelling during a game, for example at 15 kilometres per second, that is very hard to visualise sometimes,”

“It gives fans a completely new way of appreciating the physical demands of the game during a match, our relationship with the AFL and champion data has gone back now many years now,”

“What we’ve been trying to work out with them, is not only is helping the teams and the athletes understand how they could use data for rehab purposes, but with the AFL is how do can fans use this data to engage with the fans in a deeper and meaningful way.”

“Typically what happens in professional sport is a player may go into an injury, whether it’s a muscle injury or deep tissue injury and what you’re trying to do is utilise training plans to return them as quickly as possible but as safely as possible,”

“Different players have different mechanics in terms of how to return to play, our tracking devices really help practitioners understand where that athlete is in their recovery stage, it shows them how hard can they push them in training sessions how quickly are they getting back to peak performance.”