Rob Carroll decided he wanted to work with numbers in sport, after reading the book Moneyball on a flight from LA. He now works as a statistician with video analyst.
I am a performance analyst or statistician at Croke Park. I analyse all of their televised games at senior level. I capture the statistics and the metrics around the summer games and provide that information back to the GAA for rule changes and referee development.
I was a big fan around numbers in sport and then I read a book called Moneyball on a flight from LA. I picked the book up in the airport and was hooked by the end of the flight and the idea of what could be achieved by measuring numbers in sport.
When I came back to Ireland I started to look around for software that would allow me analyse games and then started working with some of the county teams and the International Rules Team as an analyst. Being involved in the International Rules was very rewarding, because you are working with the best players in the country and that stands out for me.
I then decided to do it on a bigger scale, in terms of trying to capture all of the information for Croke Park.
In Croke Park the statistics get displayed at half time. Teams also use it around half time, looking at trends that are happening in the game, so they can improve where they can or see where the weaknesses are. You have a very short window to distil that message down and get it to the players.
I love knowing things that people might assume to be true but it turns out not to be. I like the idea of finding the hidden gems. I’ve always had an interest in the numbers side of sport.
There are long hours; to analyse a game properly could take six to seven hours after the game has finished. A lot of the time, when the players and coaches are having a meal and heading off for a nice sleep, I have to have the report ready for the next morning. It can be tedious at times and high pressured.
Sometimes you do it in the stadium to capture the stats in real time and display on the big screen, and there is pressure to keep up with the pace of play but it’s very enjoyable.