Q & A with Sean Sweeney
Q & A with Sean Sweeney - Performance Analyst with Gaelic football team Red Hughs of Donegal
Introducing Sean Sweeney
Sean Sweeney has been a stalwart of the Red Hughs club for many years both as a player and part of management teams since his retirement from playing. In 2023 Sean was the Lead Performance Analyst for their senior football team. We were in contact with Sean at the start of the year and introduced him to Tagger. We worked with Sean to help get him set up and also incorporated some changes that Sean suggested to help with his workflow. Now that the season has come to a close we caught up with Sean to review how things went.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself Sean, your background in analysis and role with Red Hughs this year?
I played with the Red Hughs senior team for over 20 years. In 2019 we won the Ulster Junior title, which was a great achievement for a small club like ours. After I retired, I was asked to help with the analysis side of things. I had picked up a few bits and pieces on performance analysis over the years, especially during our run in Ulster. I was always interested in video editing, and I work in IT as well, so I found the technology part of the role quite enjoyable.
You have been using Tagger for a while now. Can you describe how you use Tagger? For example, do you mainly use it for live game tagging or post-game video analysis, or both?
I mainly use Tagger for live game tagging. I created a config file at the start of the season which had all the events I wanted to tag during the games. I also adjusted the dashboards so that I could present it as a quick summary at half time. Once the game was over, I was able to send the stats as a direct link to the management team.
What are some of the key events that you and your management team like to capture during or after the game and what insights do you get from the data that you capture?
Because we used Tagger mainly for live tagging, we kept it simple. The three main events we agreed to track were kickouts, turnovers and shots. I also liked to keep track of the shot and score source, both for our team and the opposition.
Do you use these insights mainly to help with decision making during a game or do you find it more beneficial post-game to determine things that need to be worked on ahead of the next game?
While the dashboard summary and event counts did give the manager the facts and figures for half time team talks, we found the most benefit in using the Tagger data in post-game analysis. We had a set of KPI targets which we wanted to meet for each game, and by analysing the Tagger data after the game, we were able to highlight a particular area of weakness which we could work on in training prior to the next game.
How has the experience been with Tagger? What feature(s) do you like most about Tagger?
I have enjoyed using Tagger this season. The iPad app performed reliably, and any issues I did have were quickly resolved by Peter. I liked that it was so configurable, and I could use the config files interchangeably depending on my needs. It did take a bit of work to create a config file that I was happy with, but Peter already had a GAA template created and I was able to work from that to create a personalized config file. There are other applications on the market which cost a lot more for the level of functionality that Tagger provides. I used the Live Manager Mode during live game tagging, as it gave more detail at a glance. I also liked how I was able to send the live game stats to the management team via a direct link almost immediately after the game.
Overall, what are the key benefits of Tagger for you and the team?
- Configurable
- Reliable
- Cost-efficient
- Excellent customer support
Final Comment by Peter from TeamOppy
Many thanks to Sean for his contribution to this blog and his invaluable feedback throughout the year. Sean has indicated he may be taking a break from team involvement for the coming year but I'm pretty sure he'll be pulled back in again pretty soon (you're never out Sean!!!).
