What can Scott do?
Give a quick overview of your work experience (jobs, internships, volunteering)?
GPA Engineering (Process Engineer) - Delivered project & process engineering support for mining clients across concept, feasibility, detailed design and execution.
Glencore (Project Engineer) - within the Capital Projects Team for McArthur River Mine (MRM), managed a wide range of projects up to $5M in value from concept to commissioning. BHP - assisted the Process Safety Team at BHP Olympic Dam with process hazard analyses for the surface and underground operations.
Heathgate Resources (Process Engineer) - Process engineering support for the 2018 Capitals Projects Program across concept, feasibility and detailed design. Self-Investor - Intensive self-study of financial markets and what drives them, leading to building of publicly available tools to assist traders and investors.
Do you have a track record of delivering measurable outcomes or KPIs?
As a Project Manager at McArthur River Mine, helped a project team deliver the successful commissioning of a new lead scrubber into the process circuit valued at ~$5M. I saw this through from the design stage into commissioning.
I grew a financial trading account from $60k to >$1M in 3 years
What technical or industry-specific skills do you bring?
Python (Pandas) and PineScript coding to clean data from online APIs and test patterns in time-series (trends, correlations, regime shifts). These are then translated into either a tool for the public to use on financial charting platforms, or into easily readable tables or charts in Excel that I share on social media with detailed explanations.
10+ years running projects in high-risk industrial environments means strong QA, documentation & stakeholder management and delivering tasks on time.
I use AI to accelerate research and problem-solving and to generate/refactor/debug code, which helps me iterate faster while ensuring quality is not impacted.
I’m a long-term Adelaide Crows supporter who already enjoys analysing season trends (just ask any of my friends and family, I am their go to stats guru at games)
What tools/platforms/software are they proficient in?
Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project)
Online AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT)
Python coding language (Pandas)
Social media platforms
What qualifications, certifications, or degrees do you hold?
Bachelor of Chemical Engineering (Honours)
Graduate Diploma in Applied Project Management Both obtained at University of Adelaide
When I am driven about something in my life, I put my all into it with the goal of understanding absolutely everything I can about it.
What steps has Scott taken to break into the sport industry?
I am in the process of setting up a coffee meeting with the head of HR at the Crows, which was secured through a family friend connection. I have since reached out to Phil Harper, whom I went on a Crows organised US sporting trip in 2016 with my Dad and others and have maintained a relationship with since. Phil has worked at the club for 28 years in nearly every role possible and gave me some great insights into the internal dynamics of the club and is happy for me to name drop him during my meeting with HR.
I am friends with the Head Nutritionist at the Crows too (she also played in the club's first AFLW premiership) and she has been happy to share her insights with me also.
Finally, I connected on LinkedIn with a current member of the data analytics team at the Crows, who has been very helpful in answering questions about the role and what is involved on a daily basis.
Scott’s interest in sport all started whilst watching footy…
Some of my earliest memories are playing when I started school and making my first friends, then heading to Adelaide Crows games with Dad and being in awe of the speed and skill! I played right throughout school and was never the best athlete, but I’ve always been good with numbers, so I gravitated to stats early and wanted to understand how they analyse the performance of players.
Competitive fantasy leagues with mates only fed that obsession in school, because if I was picking a player, I wanted the data to back it. In the 2000s, a career pathway into AFL stats analysis didn’t feel obvious, so I leaned into my strengths and became an engineer. That gave me 10+ years in mining delivering projects from concept through to construction/commissioning and building stakeholder relationships across Australia.
During COVID, I fell down the financial markets rabbit hole and realised I love analysing complex data systems. In 2022, I then started using AI to learn Python and Pine Script (coding languages) so I could process large datasets, automate analysis and test hypotheses faster.
I’m still the kind of fan who watches every analysis show and listens to podcasts weekly during the season (and trade/draft periods). I particularly enjoy how David King and Jason Dunstall break down the game with insights you don’t get outside inner AFL circles (as the public don't have access to all the data Champion Data collect). I’m looking for a foot in the door where I can learn from great people and help turn elite performance data within a sporting environment into better decisions and better outcomes.
Where does Scott want to go?
Next six-12 months | Next 5-10 years |
|---|---|
I want to land a role in an elite sporting environment where I can support performance analysis (ideally within the AFL), while also building out my knowledge of the specific tools used in sporting circles. Specifically, I want to upskill in SQL, Python and Tableau/Power BI, building a footy data portfolio that shows I can automate data processing, model clean datasets and turn them into simple insights for performance staff and players. | Lead the data analytics team at the Crows and sit alongside the coaches on matchdays, delivering them live updates on player and team performance |
What sporting problem keeps Scott up at night, and how would they solve it?
I’d love to solve the problem of making bulk AFL data genuinely accessible to the public; not just highlights and headline stats, but clean, well-structured datasets and simple tools that let anyone explore performance properly.
Right now, the best data and context tend to sit inside clubs and media inner circles. If you open it up (safely and without exposing private data e.g. medical records), you get two big wins: 1. More eyes, more ideas - fans, analysts, students and developers can find patterns clubs/media might miss. 2. Less groupthink - people outside the system often bring fresh angles and fewer assumptions. Practically, I’d focus on: 1. Building an easy pipeline from source data with curated tables 2. A public-facing layer (dashboards/API/downloads) with clear documentation, so insights become easier to test by the wider public.
What is Scott like?
What kind of environment do you thrive in?
Supportive team cultures where people are happy to feed ideas off each other and can build genuine relationships.
When have you had to show resilience in your life or career?
When I had just purchased my first home in 2017, I was then made redundant due to costing cutting at the company which gave me my graduate opportunity. As this happened in November, I found it very hard to find a new job quickly and financially this hurt me significantly, leading to nearly needing to sell my house as I was struggling with the mortgage/bills. Thankfully, after doing some work with a family friend that is a career coach, I started being able to secure interviews and found myself back in work after 5 months and met my wife a few months later!
What about Scott’s interests outside of work?
What are your interests outside of work?
Spending time with my wife at home and socialising with our friends - catching up at pubs, wineries, events or just a chilled night at home playing board games/watching movies
Watching as many games as I can throughout an AFL season, watching/listening to as many shows as I can fit in and attending every Crows home game (and maybe one or two in Melbourne)
Watching every game of the Australian cricket team at home and overseas, with a strong preference for Test matches (Adelaide Test is the best in Australia!)
Keeping up to date with the South Australian cricket team and watches matches when I can on TV - attending the Shield final win in early 2025 and getting to run on the field with all the fans after they won is one of my most memorable moments in sport (it would've been the Crows Grand Final in 2017, but we won't speak about that...)
What is your favourite sporting moment?
When the Crows won the prelim in 2017 at Adelaide Oval. It was a surreal feeling during the last quarter when we had the game secured and knowing I could attend my first ever Grand Final with my team in it!
What’s your ideal holiday?
A sporting tour of Europe/UK when the French Open, Ashes and Wimbledon are all on across a 2-3 month period
If you had 30 minutes to pick the brain of anyone, who would it be and why?
David King - He has such a strong passion for analysing trends within the AFL and gets access to all data Champion Data collect. It would be great to understand what drove him post playing career into analysing player performance at a deeper level (not a common path for many players) and his methodology for turning that into commentary on TV and radio for a variety of different audiences.
What’s book or podcast that’s helped your career you recommend?
Devil Take the Hindmost by Edward Chancellor helped me learn about the history of speculation in financial markets and recognise those same behaviours in myself so that I can make better investment decisions
Additional details
Where in the world are you located, and where are you open to work?
Living in Adelaide and open to work here only (unless it was a fully remote role)
What is the most important consideration for you in your next role?
Easy team to get along with that are supportive and I can learn from Professional development opportunities Progression opportunities to a full-time salary if starting out in a casual or part-time role
What others say about Scott
Scott takes ownership. He’s calm under pressure, communicates clearly and consistently delivers on schedule. Scott can break down a problem fast, gets to the root cause and then builds a practical fix. Scott is great at turning complexity into something people can act on. He’s thorough, reliable and builds trust quickly with stakeholders.
What questions does Scott have for employers?
How do coaches usually request analysis - ad hoc, weekly meetings or a formal intake process?
How do you prioritise weekly match analysis in season vs longer-term architecture projects?
What are your key targets that you track consistently each week and what changes opponent-to-opponent?
How do players and coaches like having the insights delivered to them — 1-page notes, dashboards, clips, live comms?
What’s on the roadmap for improving reporting workflows / data architecture this season?
In the box, when the data challenges what’s being seen, what’s the best way an analyst can communicate that in the moment?
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