The GIANTS are keeping a close eye on the diverse range of sporting talent coming through Western Sydney, literally.
In partnership with Western Sydney University, students Lael Kassem and Andrew Sharp are undertaking a three-year research program into the relationship between decision making and eye-movement that the GIANTS hope will uncover the next crop of talent.
Kassem, of Lebanese background, is a trained physiotherapist and one of the stars of the Auburn GIANTS womens team.
Sharp is half Indian and has grown up playing AFL for the St George Dragons AFC in Sydney and is a qualified podiatrist.
One of the supervisors for the project is the GIANTS former Head of Sports Science John Quinn who is now the club’s Academy Director.
During his long and distinguished career coaching athletics and working at Essendon and the GIANTS in the AFL, Quinn has seen first hand the impressive attributes that different athletes from diverse backgrounds bring to sport.
WSU Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Scott Holmes, DVC Research & Development said he was thrilled to get the program underway.
“PhD candidates Andrew and Lael are two great examples of how Western Sydney University is creating Higher Degree Research & scholarship opportunities through its partnerships with top ranking institutions such as GWS GIANTS,” said Professor Holmes.
“We pride ourselves on going that extra mile to fully unlock the potential of the next generation and look forward to following Andrew and Lael’s project at the GIANTS.”
Quinn told the Daily Telegraph that he believes there is a huge amount of untapped talent across Western Sydney and Western NSW that this project will look at.
“One of the things we’re looking at is the link between decision-making and how your eye moves. We are measuring eye movement and working out if there is a correlation between a person’s ability to make decisions. We believe there is,” said Quinn.
“We can go into a school environment and not only test their speed but test their vision.
“Gone will be the days where we do all the physical parameters and then send the athletes to the coaches and have just a subjective decision on whether they will be good enough to make it.
“We will have data to measure their ability to make decisions.”
In his time at Essendon, Quinn worked with one of the AFL’s greatest indigenous players in Michael Long and has close affiliations with two of the GIANTS finest indigenous talents in with Zac Williams and Nathan Wilson.
He believes the Aboriginal talent in Western Sydney is virtually untapped.
“There are more indigenous Australians living in Western Sydney than the whole of the Northern Territory, yet none of them are playing AFL,” Quinn told the Daily Telegraph.
“We need to change that. We can offer them the opportunity to play in the orange and charcoal. I’m excited and think we can change the way we’re doing things.”
The tests will be carried out across a range of schools and youth clubs across Western Sydney as well as shopping centres.
“People said I was nuts going to a shopping centre but I want to get the kids who don’t know how to spell AFL,” Quinn said.
“I want to get the kid who went to the shopping centre to play a game and he or she will come and do a test and, who knows, we might find a Brownlow medallist.”
