The Canberra Raiders train while wearing the Catapult GPS units. Photo supplied by the Canberra Raiders.
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When the Canberra Raiders compete against the Sydney Roosters this weekend, global positioning system (GPS) units tucked into the players’ jerseys will help coaching staff analyse how long the players can last before they need to rest.
The units measure how many kilometres a player travels, body impact such as the amount of times they are tackled and speed zones measure how fast a player is running.
Canberra Raiders media and website manager Ben Pollack told Computerworld Australia that the Catapult GPS tracking units have been a huge part of the Raiders strengthening and conditioning regime for the past two years.
All of this data is collated on a laptop and used by the coaches to calculate how long players can run, kick, tackle and scrum before they need to retire.
This is particularly important for the hefty front row and second row forwards who sometimes fatigue quicker than other players.
When the Raiders play around Australia or travel to New Zealand to take on the NZ Warriors, this data can be accessed by coaching staff via a laptop.
Off the field, the Raiders check their training schedules online using the new Ascend D1 quad smartphones supplied by their major sponsor, Huawei.
Initially, six of the high profile players were given smartphones. For example, winger Sandor Earl who is a big social media fan uses his Huawei phone to interact with fans on Twitter.
"Huawei has also provided the coaching staff with Internet dongles so they can access emails and websites while they’re on the road," says Pollack.
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Stadium tweeting
Like every National Rugby League (NRL) team, the Raiders have been enthusiastic adopters of technology which help it interact with loyal club members.
For example, fans who attend games at Canberra Stadium have their live tweets broadcast on the big screens around the ground.
“If it was a great try or goal we’ll encourage people to tweet through now so fans can feel like they’re part of the game,” Pollack says.
“We also do a Twitter Man of the Match where fans tweet through who they think is their man of the match and at our post game presentation, that player gets presented with an award.”
Getting social
Encouraging live tweeting at matches is just one part of the Canberra Raiders social networking strategy. It currently has 43,000 'likes' on Facebook, 11,290 Twitter followers and 2000 Instagram fans.
“This means we have about 56,000 people we can target our information to and we encourage the players to use social media — if they do it right,” Pollack says.
One former Raider who did not follow the social media rules was fullback Josh Dugan. Against club orders, he posted pictures of himself on Twitter drinking beers the day after the Raiders lost to the Penrith Panthers and also threatened fans on Instagram.
Dugan was subsequently fired by the club on 14 March this year after a long list of off-field incidents.
“That indiscretion on social media was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of his list of indiscretions,” he says.
However, Dugan was an isolated incident. Second rower Joel Thompson uses the forum to publicise the volunteer work he does with the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre while club captain Terry Campese tweets about his charity foundation.
Strategies for handling trolling or abusive player is included in the club’s social media do’s and don’ts.
“The biggest thing we say to the players is if someone is being abusive towards them on Twitter, they should block the person and ignore them,” Pollack says. “If they get a continued tirade of abuse, we’ll report it through Twitter.”
According to Pollack, Twitter Australia has been very helpful in shutting down fake Canberra Raiders player accounts and getting the real player accounts verified with the blue and white tick.