SPT’s Player Analyser – Will Thompson

Will Strange

This week Sports Performance Tracking’s Player Analyser focuses on Will Thompson from Old Melburnians.

Last week we took an in depth look at De La Salle key back, Tom Humphrey.

Will Thompson is a very versatile player. The ability for a player to have the capacity to be a tagger, but also roam the wings, forward-line and back-line is a real asset to the team.

His fitness levels need to be prepared to play on the in-and-under type, but also the outside athlete that covers a lot of km’s during a game.

Will’s game is modelled on the back of West Coast’s Scott Selwood. His role is to be a stopper that still wins the ball and hurts the opposition in transition.

Old Melburnians currently play in Premier B, but this does not stop Will from being a phenomenal athlete. Last week in their match against St Kevin’s OB on the Junction Oval, Will ran well over15km for the day. His effort included no fewer than 106 sprint efforts which is amongst the top level.

Will is a consistent runner. His distance average and average speed stayed very consistent throughout the game, however, his top end speed did deteriorate towards the last quarter. SPT results suggest Will needs to work on repeat efforts at high volume as he doesn’t seem to get much rest time during the the game.

The OM’s had an unfortunate 91-point loss to arch enemies St Kevin’s in their ANZAC Day clash. Will was named 4^th best on ground for the OM’s and his GPS results suggested he did not stop trying.

Comparing his game with two elite players from William Buck Premier, Will’s numbers stack up really well. He was only down a handful of total sprint efforts on both Jack Bull and Tom Humprey in the game and his top speed had both Jack and Tom covered. What was present in our stats was that Will spent a lot of time walking. Looking at his 5 minute interval breakup, Will needed more bench time in order for him to rest and hit those high numbers in the last quarter.

Will Strange is the CEO and founder of Sports Performance Tracking (sportsperformancetracking.com). This year they have teamed with the VAFA to analyse how VAFA footballers compare to the elite level using their GPS tracking technology.

 {Photo by Jeremy Dixon}