Dartfish: Continuing to drive the cutting edge of sports analysis

Sports analysis is an ever-evolving process, with thousands of different organisations vying to be the best, each have to constantly improve, or face being left behind.

One company that has always been ahead of the curve is Dartfish.

Founded in 1998 as inMotion Technologies Ltd, Dartfish has driven the sports analysis space for over 20 years.

Created via the advent of the SimulCam in 1997, Dartfish has since launched revolutionary products and services such StroMotion, Dartfish TV, and several apps such as the MyDartfish Express Mobile App.

To maintain its position as a world leader, Dartfish is committed to providing leading services for its clients everywhere, featuring offices across the world, including in Australia.

In the world of football, Dartfish is celebrated for its world class video analysis.

Football Video Analysis 

Currently, Dartfish offers three tiers of video analysis for football, ranging from entry level solutions to club level packages.

Dartfish understands the uniqueness of each of its clients and thus all packages work on Windows, Android, IOS and Cloud. Additionally, all packages support 4K, Mpeg-4, and h.264 video file formats.

As a standard, Dartfish provides tagging tools in its packages, allowing coaches to bookmark key moments in game recordings to review later. This is bolstered by a range of annotation and compositing tools, and overlays to aid coaches in showcasing and detailing what is happening on the pitch.

Additionally, each analysis package provides video editing and publishing tools to create clips and videos to be shared.

Premium Video Analysis

Where Dartfish’s technical capability absolutely stars is in its two highest tiered packages.

Expanding on the basic video tools in the first package, the MyDartfish Soccer and Dartfish ProS solutions both supply clients with multi-video analysis, 3D drawings and analysis, plus live feeds, video encoding and tagging tools.

Through multi-video analysis, coaches can combine different videos to review and edit, bestowing greater freedom in how to decipher game situations.

3D drawing and analysis provides an entirely new dimension to scrutinise. 3D drawing enables coaches to annotate crosses and high ball movement far more effectively than in 2D.

However, the inclusion of live feeds, video encoding and tagging tools may stand as some of the more genius, and actively decisive revelations across the packages. Live feeds and encoding mean active game vision can be livestreamed for others to watch, such as support coaches and staff.

Live tagging builds upon the previously available tagging tools through being actively usable during a game. This is an incredibly useful tool for coaches as it allows them to quickly tag a key moment in a game to review later, without distracting them from the action.

Dartfish ProS

However, Dartfish does not stop there.

The most premium of their packages – the Dartfish ProS – features the company’s flagship products the SimulCam and StroMotion, plus Dartfish Live Collaboration.

SimulCam combines multiple videos of different actions to be combined into one, providing a direct comparison of how several athletes perform.

StroMotion captures footage of an event and showcases the evolution of how athletes move. Through these technologies, coaches can evaluate if athletes’ techniques are correct or if they are moving to the right positions.

The final feature, Dartfish Live Collaboration, allows for multiple users to join a shared timeline during a game. In the timeline, users can share, edit and delete tags they have added to review and analyse how a team is playing.

Conclusion 

In addition to their work with clients, Dartfish has received acclaim from the Croatian and Swiss national teams, and successful clubs like BSC Young Boys.

As a long-time leader in the sport analysis space, Dartfish continues to elevate the market with its world class technological solutions.

For any club looking to improve, Dartfish’s video analysis packages stand as an incredibly beneficial solution.

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PFA Annual Report Highlights Key Concerns for A-League Players

The Professional Footballers Association (PFA) have released their 2024 Annual A-League Men’s report. This analysis has highlighted key successful areas of last season and importantly areas of growth in the league.

This review uses a wide range of data but importantly uses a strong player-based approach.

A key tool for data collection for this report is the A-League Men’s end-of-season survey conducted voluntarily online between May 7-31, 2024. This survey received 191 player responses, a record number with at least 13 players from each club.

The survey provides a comprehensive and representative source of player insights for policymakers, offering robust comparisons across the league.

Categorised below are some key factors of the report.

International Benchmarking

The Twenty-First Group’s World Super League model provides insights into the A-League Men’s (ALM) competitive positioning.

The analysis employed a machine learning approach, rating team strengths based on performance and player movements from ten relevant leagues over six seasons. The ALM ranks eighth among these competitions as a second-tier Asian league.

The salary cap system contributes to the consistent team strengths, with a slight overall decline in score over six years likely attributed to league expansion. Despite this, the ALM’s league ranking remained stable.

From a player development perspective, the analysis offers guidance for international transfers to leagues that offer promising development pathways for Australian players looking to progress in their international careers.

Transfer Revenue

The Australian A-League Men (ALM) has experienced a remarkable transformation in its transfer market dynamics as a significant talent production and export market over recent years.

In 2024, ALM clubs received at least $17.5 million in transfer fees, with the total value potentially exceeding $20 million, significantly up from the approx. $10 million in 2023 and the $2.5 million average in past seasons.

This growth represents a fundamental shift in the domestic men’s football economy. For the first time, transfer revenue is now surpassing broadcast revenue.

In the context of the broader market, while ALM revenues have grown quickly, they remain a fraction of those in slightly more advanced leagues.

AFC Club Competitions

Previously, AFC competitions were often more costly than beneficial.

However, in the new 3-tier continental club competitions for 2024, the AFC Champions League Elite (ACLE) qualifying for the eight-match group stage guarantees $1.23m, with an additional $150k per win. Champions can earn at least $18.5m.

The ACL2, Which CC Mariners won last season, provides $462k for group stage participation and $77k per win, with champions potentially earning up to $5m. ALM clubs receive one berth in both the top two tiers.

Under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, players will receive an increasing share of prize money from the Round of 16 onwards.

Player Profiles

The PFA conducted a comprehensive analysis of match minutes across six leagues: A-League Men (ALM), J1 League, K League 1, MLS, Scottish Premiership, and Belgian Pro League.

The analysis revealed that Australian and Belgian leagues stood out, with over 10% of match minutes played by under 20s, compared to less than 5% in the other four competitions.

The introduction of scholarship players outside the salary cap has notably reduced the league’s average age, emphasizing its commitment to youth development.

Attendance

Average attendance for regular season matches has increased to 8,076 from 7,553 in 2022-23, but crowds have still not recovered to their pre-COVID levels.

Excluding the lowest attended teams of Western United and Macarthur FC the average attendance last season was 9,232, 14% higher than the 8,076 overall average.

Though the overall bias against crowd attendance can be assumed to be not as prevalent as people think, identifying this can help deal with the situations that hinder attendance.

Competitive balance

Competitive balance overall was strong with 7% of matches featuring a margin of four or more goals and 7% decided by three goals.

There was a tight race for the top 6 and the bottom two teams from 2022-23, Macarthur and Melbourne Victory, both made the finals, demonstrating the strong competitive balance of the ALM across seasons.

CBA Progress

Total player payments were around $57.8m in 2023-24, down slightly from the all-time high of $58.8m the previous season with the average payments per club being around $4.8m. This was well above the salary cap of $2.6m.

The vast majority of exempt payments from the cap were those to Marquee and Designated players. The average spend on Scholarship Players was just under $300k per club.

This report describes how revenues from transfer fees and a more lucrative AFC Champions League present new financial opportunities for our clubs.

Player Perceptions

According to the PFA end-of-season survey, 50% of ALM players were dissatisfied and 27% were very dissatisfied with how APL has performed in its management of the competition.

46% of players had ‘low trust’ in APL regarding developing a vision to improve the league.

The PFA was rated highest by the players, with 91% satisfied with its performance regarding ALM and 64% having high trust in the PFA to develop a vision.

In issues of the league, trajectory players outlined fan core experience as a centre stage with more than half including Broadcast (58%) and Atmosphere (51%) in their top three with Visibility and Branding/Marketing coming in second.

Workplace Safety

The PFA end-of-season survey uncovered concerning findings regarding the safety of ALM players’ workplaces.

11% of ALM players felt their club environment was either physically or psychologically unsafe and one in five players (20%) said they or a team-mate were unwilling to discuss issues with coaching staff and 16% with club management. 7% of players reported instances of players being forced to train alone at their clubs.

Though only a few clubs were reported on this, is still regarded as an industry issue.

Extreme weather

Last season one in six ALM matches was impacted by extreme weather with extreme heat the main culprit. 58% of players indicated the conditions impacted the players’ performances and 9% of player performances were hindered overall.

Club Index

Sydney FC was rated as the league’s best-performing club in the overall Club Performance Index, after placing in the top three for the sub-indices for Operations, Facilities, and Culture.

Pitch and atmosphere ratings

A-League players rated Wellington’s Sky Stadium with perfect marks for its pitch quality also and a four-star average for the match atmosphere.

Adelaide’s Coopers Stadium, AAMI Park, where also highly rated by ALM players with an average around the 4 stars mark. Victory home matches received an average of 4.4 for atmosphere.

The lowest rated were Newcastle’s McDonald Jones Stadium and Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium, averaging just 2.1.

Though other factors are included for pitch quality like other events, Players should still not be subject to substandard and potentially dangerous conditions.

Conclusion

Though the report shows that in many aspects the sport is moving in the right direction, the responses from players on their welfare and on the need for more attendance is a worrying sign for the management.

This assessment is a strong example of the PFA’s dedication towards the sport in Australia and maintaining the strong relationship between the Football industry and the players themselves.

The key points of this report should be central to plans within A-League and Australian Football itself.

Football NSW hosts inaugural futsal expo

On Thursday November 21st, Football NSW held its inaugural Futsal Expo at Valentine Sports Park, drawing over 100 coaches and members for a highly successful evening celebrating the sport.

The event featured an impressive line-up of international keynote speakers, including Vasco Da Gama’s Technical Director Gabriel Bussinger, former English FA Technical Lead and National Futsal Team Coach Peter Sturgess, and current Futsalroos coach Miles Downie, who all took centre stage during the evening.

Football NSW Futsal Manager, Jordan Guerreiro, said at the event.

“I think we all had an amazing opportunity to witness what great minds were able to provide through their advice and wisdom to our coaches in Gabriel Bussinger, Peter Sturgess and Miles Downie,” he said.

“The ideas and concepts on coaching at the younger phases of development of players and the importance of what we teach and how we coach is so crucial at this stage of development.”

Gabriel Bussinger provided valuable insights into the culture of Brazilian futsal, highlighting the significance of 1v1 situations and fostering bravery and creativity in players. He urged coaches to build players’ confidence in challenging defenders and unleashing their creative abilities.

Peter Sturgess delved into the rising trend of the Flying Goalkeeper in modern futsal, offering strategies for training goalkeepers to effectively use their feet in different scenarios—a crucial skill in today’s game.

“Key takeaways from the event included the potential for football clubs and coaches to incorporate futsal into their overall coaching strategy,” Guerreiro continued.

“By doing this, they can offer a broader range of learning environments and scenarios that nurture the adaptability, bravery, and creativity in players. The global impact of futsal on player development is undeniable, and it should be an integral part of football programs.”

Miles Downie shared his coaching philosophy and player development strategies, providing an in-depth account of his experiences with the national team and recent international competitions.

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