Alumnus of the Year, Rising Star (October 2016)
Scott Barker was in the first intake of sport and exercise science students at USC in 1999. Around the same time, he wrote a letter to Brisbane Broncos coach Wayne Bennett offering his services at training and ended up volunteering there for two years, doing everything from holding up the tackle bags to filling water bottles. In 2001, Wayne created a full-time paid position for Scott as Video Analyst. "Wayne was definitely ahead of his time", says Scott. "It's only in the last 4 or 5 years that other professional rugby league clubs have employed full-time performance analysts". During his career, Scott has also worked for Australian Rugby League, Newcastle Knights, Illawarra Dragons, QLD State of Origin and French National Rugby League. Career highlights include winning the NRL grand finals twice, QLD State of Origin in 2006 and being part of the winning Australian team at the 2011 Rugby League Four Nations tournament and 2013 Rugby League World Cup. (Full details via link above).
Passionate about pushing the boundaries of sports technology to improve team performance, in 2002, Scott bought a GPS tracking device with his own money to experiment how this could be applied to rugby league. Attached to a player’s jersey to record and analyse player performance and inform training load, these devices are now widely used in the sporting industry worldwide. When digital video came into the market, first in cricket in the late 1990s, Scott helped develop software for a league version that is now used in all 16 NRL clubs.
In 2015 Scott was one of the first in rugby league to introduce drone technology to film training sessions and more recently has been trialling virtual simulation technology as a training tool. Scott also gives back to his profession by mentoring sports and exercise students from various universities.
“The biggest thing I got out of USC was that it opened up this world of possibilities of how to make sport better”, says Scott. USC's Professor of Biomechanics, Brendan Burkett, helped him with several projects to push the boundaries of sport science.
At the end of this year’s NRL season, on a break from his commitments with the Broncos, Scott will take up a role as Head of Performance Analysis for the English National Rugby League team during the Four Nations tournament in the UK and for their preparations for the next Rugby League World Cup to be held in Australia.
Please note: this is archival information and may not reflect the recipients' current work details.