The Canberra Raiders have joined forces with one of the world's leading data analysts to get the winning edge.
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Raiders analyst Joel Carbone will draw on the expertise of PricewaterhouseCoopers in the Green Machine's bid to go on step better than last year's NRL grand final.
There's a couple of projects Carbone has in mind: what areas of workrate can win you games and using data to minimise injuries by as little as one game less missed.
Carbone will liaise with some of PwC's top analysts in his sixth season with the Green Machine.
He does video analysis and has helped with recruitment, assisting coach Ricky Stuart and recruitment boss Peter Mulholland look at potential targets.
Carbone also worked with Michael Ennis last season on the Green Machine's attack, to complement the defensive work Andrew McFadden and Brett White were doing.
Just like Canberra want to have the best players in the NRL, Carbone wants to produce the best data analysis in the competition.
Hence joining forces with PwC, where Raiders director Terry Weber a managing partner in their Canberra office.
"We've got a bit of an agreement with PwC through Terry and through [Ricky]," Carbone said.
"They're going to allow us access to some of their top analysts, which is pretty cool for us.
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"I'll be directing a project where ... hopefully they come up with some insights [and] allow us some sort of competition-wide advantage this year and over the coming years."
The NRL has stats coming out of its ears - run metres, kick-return metres, dummy runs, line breaks, tackles.
Carbone wants to see if they can find any particular areas that lead to wins.
"We want to give these analysts access to pretty-detailed, NRL-level stats and see whether they're able to come up with some pretty clear metrics around player attacking and defensive workrate," he said.
"Not simply how hard somebody works, but how those workrate metrics impact the outcome of matches - things that go beyond the traditional run metres, tackles.
"We're trying to find things that are maybe hidden by traditional stats."
Carbone said load management and injury prevention wasn't anything new.
PwC will have access to all the players' data - from training and games - and would be given free range to do whatever analysis they deem fit.
He said if they found a way to keep one player on the field for one game longer then it will be worthwhile.
"We're going to allow them quite a lot of freedom. I'll oversee that," Carbone said.
"You don't want to go in to it with a preconceived idea of what you're going to come out with.
"Hopefully what they come up with is a way that gives us some sort of benefit in keeping the guys on the park for as long as possible, because that's what it's about.
"If we can cut out just one week of injury then we're doing better than we already are."